Interesting article here in the Guardian about the fall in Cannabis Use.

Since its category was downgraded to a class C drug, use has fallen quite significantly. The proportion of young people using cannabis has fallen from 23.5% to 20.9%

This is despite the downgrade of the drug to class C.

Ironically, since the drug was downgraded the police have increased the numbers of street warnings about using cannabis. The number of people dealt with by the police for cannabis possession has doubled since the drug was downgraded.

However, this shows that problem is not solved by prohibition, quite often prohibition can create different kinds of problems such as:

• Benefits criminals who can deal in illegal drugs for good profit margins
• More difficult to control quality of drugs (e.g use of . Skunk has become more widespread)
• Making it illegal may make it seem more dangerous and interesting

Making Cannabis fully legal would enable the government to collect tax and regulate its quality. However, if it was made fully legal to smoke, consumption may increase compared to its current class C status.

Nevertheless, as the article suggests, there is a good case for taking the decision of drug classification out of the hands of politicians.

See also: Should drugs be legalised?

Labels: drugs

Of course, many dangerous and lethal drugs are already legal.

• Tobacco is one of the UK's biggest killers Between 1950 and 2000, 42 per cent of deaths in middle age (35-69) in UK men were caused by smoking, peaking in the 1960s when tobacco caused half of all deaths in middle-aged men.
• The Number of alcohol related deaths in the UK has doubled in the past 20 years, In 2005, the number of deaths reached 8356, [source 1]
  

The number of deaths from "illegal drugs" is correspondingly much smaller. Although, this is partly due to the fact less people take the drugs.

Arguments for Legalising Drugs

1. Government could regulate the quality of the drugs. This would prevent dangerous varieties of drugs being offered to unwitting consumers.
2. It would Reduce criminal activity. Organised criminals can make profit from the trade in illegal drugs
3. Government can collect tax revenue from the sale of drugs. It will also save money from vainly trying to stop the illegal sale of drugs
4. The government have been helping to reduce tobacco consumption over the past 2 decades, even though it is legal. Illegal drug consumption, however, has been continuing to grow.

Arguments against legalising drugs

1. Making them Legal would encourage consumption.
2. People still underestimate the dangers of illegal drugs. Legalising drugs may give wrong signals. See ecstasy dangers for just 1 example
3. If it was legalised in the UK, drug addicts may be attracted to the UK. Like, for example, the cannabis tourists in holiday. - This is a strong argument against legalising drugs.

• The hidden dangers of cannabis

Labels: drugs

By making drugs illegal, it ironically, makes it more attractive to supply them. If it is was a competitive market with no government interference, the supply of cannabis would be very high. (apparently, it is easy to grow in a greenhouse) and therefore the price low.

However, the government has sought to restrict supply - make it illegal. Therefore, the price is pushed up by the lack of supply. This makes the good more attractive to supply. Remember also, that the demand is inelastic, therefore a fall in supply causes a correspondingly larger increase in price.

Demand for addictive drugs is so inelastic because when you are addicted, the drug becomes a necessity with no close substitutes

When governments say they are going to fight the criminals and try and destroy the supply of the drug. They often fail to point out that such schemes never actually work. What happens is that they reduce the supply a little by say 10% This just makes the drug more profitable.

This is not to say the government and police shouldn't try to catch criminals supplying drugs. They certainly deserve to be caught and imprisoned. But, it is just to point out that such operations do not address the underlying problem that illegal drugs are very attractive to supply.

Actually, for some drugs the price has fallen because even the illegal supply of drugs has been increasing.

See: ecstasy price falls to record lows - This shows the government are completely failing to stop the supply

Labels: drugs

The man who took 40,000 ecstasy tablets. at Guardian

"Though the man, who is now 37, stopped taking the drug seven years ago, he still suffers from severe physical and mental health side-effects, including extreme memory problems, paranoia, hallucinations and depression. He also suffers from painful muscle rigidity around his neck and jaw which often prevents him from opening his mouth. The doctors believe many of these symptoms may be permanent."

- I just wonder how he managed to count them all...


The two characteristics of a demerit good are:

1. People underestimate the damage they can do. Basically this is a normative statement that people make irrational (bad) choices. In this case, the man choose to ignore the likely mental health problems arising from excessive consumption of drugs.

2. Usually cause negative externalities. In this case the negative externality will include the cost to the NHS of treating his mental health problems.

• More on Market Failure

Labels: drugs