Minimizing the social cost of drug abuse: An economic analysis of alternatives for policy

Abstract

The use of heroin, with its concomitant social problems, is facilitated by an illicit market process which functions similarly to economic markets in general. The analysis of this process, incorporated in a model embodying the interacting relationships of crime generation and control, permits evaluation of three fundamentally different strategies for social control. These axe controlling supply through law enforcement and other strategies, controlling demand by detaining addicts, or reducing illicit market activitity by introducing an effective substitute for the services of that market. When all the social costs of addiction are taken into account and when minimizing the total of those costs is taken to be the objective, the authors conclude that the "best" solution will lie with the establishment of a drug maintenance program. Properly administered, such a program would undermine the illicit market by reducing demand. Furthermore, it can be expected to reduce levels of drug related crimes and to moderate factors encouraging addiction.

Epidemiological dynamics of addiction.

“…Rottenberg was an early contributor, but he was not alone during the 1960s and 1970s in his efforts to create a rational conceptual framework for evaluating alternative public policy investments (e.g., where to focus intervention resources). Readers will benefi t from a review of contemporaneous contributions by Erickson (1969) , Greenwood (1971) , Koch and Grupp (1971) , Nisbet and Vakil (1972) , Phares (1973) , Eatherly (1974) , Yeager (1975) , Votey andPhillips (1976) , andBernard (1983) as well as more recent work from Jonathan Caulkins and his colleagues (e.g., Caulkins, Feichtinger, Tragler, & Wallner, 2010 ). Some of these contributions were fairly narrow in scope, as with Greenwood ' s attempt to estimate prevalence of drug use.…”

The Counterproductivity of Conservative Thinking About Crime

“…Blockage of some sources of supply soon increases the profit, hence the enterprise, in others (including, for example, sales of substitute drugs often more dangerous than those previously used). Furthermore, because efforts to prohibit sales of a highly addictive substance, such as heroin, make the price so high that most addicts must commit crimes to procure funds to purchase it, the principal effect of more enforcement of current laws banning such drugs is t o increase the volume of property crimes, for more of these offenses are then perpetrated by addicts (Fujii, 1975;Votey and Phillips, 1976).…”