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To: Billy_bob_bob
The profit incentive would simply be moved to Corporations
29 posted on 12/17/2002 10:41:57 AM PST by Texaggie79
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To: Texaggie79
"The profit incentive would simply be moved to Corporations"

Exactly! Corporations that are licenced and forced to operate within narrowly defined guidelines. If they step out of line they lose their license and someone else gets to make the profits, marginal as they are. Again, the idea is to legalize and regulate the traffic to the degree that it wipes out the profit motive. I'll go a step further and suggest something else in addition to my first proposal.

From what I have learned from the history of drugs in society, it is that there are two extreme conditions that can lead to a majority of any given population ending up addicted to any given drug.

The first extreme condition arises from attempts to prohibit all drugs. This leads to extreme demand from a small percentage of the population that leads to very high prices and profits being realized by those who supply said demand. The profit incentive leads the suppliers to want to expand their markets, and it's off to the races.

The second extreme condition arises from oversupply of drugs, as happened with the "nickel gin" plague that hit England in the 18th century. Because gin was so plentiful and so cheap, a large percentage of the population became addicted.

So, getting back to my proposal, I have to amend my suggestion to include the idea of setting prices high enough to discourage addiction, while keeping them low enough to short-circuit the black market.

37 posted on 12/17/2002 10:49:20 AM PST by Billy_bob_bob
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