Where and when will be the best place and time to get fresh cheap crack and enjoy watching the sporting event of the year?Rio 2016 of course!
While the decision who gets to host the Olympics is dirty politics (I'm sorry Barack!), the supply of "fresh, cheap, quality" drugs can be attributed to the miracle of competition!
As the Economist article on Rio "The bottom line " says, there are three large competing drug fractions in Rio. Fierce competition among the gangs is bringing the prices (and I presume quantities) close to the perfect competition outcome.
Is this the way to go? It definitely is, if you believe that humans are truly rational and that drug addiction is in fact utility maximizing.
It might not be, if you think the drug addicts are not fully rational. Monopolistic drug dealer would increase prices and slash quantities sold, so decreasing the number of drug addicts (being drug addict is more expensive => the outside option gets more attractive). On the other hand it would create extra revenues for the drug cartel, these would likely be used in ways not consistent with the "best interest" of the majority society.
Anyway, if watching sporting events and doing crack is your thing, start shopping for a ticket!
4 comments:
the way to go would be to include in the pice of drugs the costs gangs induce on society through its negative externalities, i.e. violence, insecrurity, poverty etc...how do u do that? u legalize and u tax!
Can't but agree!
it's not fresh, as it comes a long way from bolivia and colombia, wanders in paraguay and then get sumggled in brazil before going to europe, us and africa and getting consumed locally. and its not crack: rio's specialty is cocaine and marijuana. more importantly, the fierce competition between the narcodealers in rio dates back from the 80's, its new only to "the economist". and the violence is not getting worse, it is just as it has been in the past 10 years, the difference is that now the international media is watching rio closely (games and world cup). that said, i would also like to see international coordination for legalization and taxation of the "sector" (like climate change, it has to be global).
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