Monday, September 05, 2005

Bring Back Alcohol Prohibition?

Instapundit links to an article about the DEA being nostalgic for alcohol prohibition.

They cite the fact that alcohol consumption was cut by 2/3s. They also mention dramatic reductions of liver cirrhosis. OK let us fact check their asses.

What exactly were the dramatic reductions? About 10% to 20%.. Now I'd say that the correlation was weak. Why would it be weak? The simple reason is most users use responsibly and prohibition deters them. Prohibition does not deter the most irrespponsible users.

I'd expect the deal with other drugs is about the same. Prohibition only deters responsible users. So what good is it? Well it is what I like to call Republican Socialism: price supports for criminals. Which are indirect supports for law enforcement. Well what we can say from an economic point of view is this: it takes a hell of a lot of crime to get a few more cops on the street. We all knew socialism was not too effective. More proof.

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