--- Michael Pollak <mpollak at panix.com> wrote: >
> On Mon, 21 May 2001, Daniel Davies wrote:
>
> > I also think that the low value density is intrinsic to the
> > pharmacological properties of nicotine compared to cannabis, heroin,
> > etc -- you need to transport a larger volume to provide someone with
> > their daily consumption. For this reason, it's never going to be the
> > kind of high-stakes product that's worth carrying an Uzi (and risking
> > the concomitant jailtime) over.
>
> Weren't Vietnamese gangs shooting each other over smuggled cigarettes in
> East Germany a couple of years back?
>
You might be right, and I also seem to remember that the counterfeit Marlboro and 555 business is indeed protected by guns. So maybe I'm applying a business-school model out of place. But I still think that the demand curve for tobacco is such that it's not going to be economic to sustain the kind of military infrastructure that crack and heroin do, or at least not in G7 countries. Frankly, I'm surprised that marijuana is worth shooting someone over, although the history of Jamaica ought to have wised me up to that one.
and:
-- Joanna Sheldon <cjs10 at cornell.edu> wrote: > So, how much is a pack of
>Gauloises in your neck of the woods, Daniel? At
> the tobacconist's, I mean...
dunno, never touch the ghastly things. My working man's Marlboros are £4.59 a pack (~=U$6.56). I dimly realise it is slightly tragic that I have been more loyal in my life to a particular mixture of floor-sweepings and asbestos than I have to three different women and about a dozen friends, but that's capitalism for you. I haven't changed my bank in the last ten years either.
d^2
____________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.co.uk address at http://mail.yahoo.co.uk or your free @yahoo.ie address at http://mail.yahoo.ie