Daily Mail - Lowering the price of hard drugs will REDUCE crime, study says

[edgarshade]

By Daily Mail Reporter

Last updated at 3:05 AM on 22nd December 2011

With reader comments

The price of hard drugs found on the street may be able to forecast the level of violent crime like larceny, assault and homicide in New York City, according to a new study.

A study at the John Jay College, 'More Drugs, Less Crime,' in Manhattan, states that the price of hard drugs for a particular year can help determine the level of crime expected based on a user's ease in acquiring.

'Essentially our paper could be boiled down to this: Most crime is committed by drug users to finance the cost of drug use,' Travis Wendel, the main author of the study explained according to the New York World.

More...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ost-hard-drugs-suggest-New-York-scholars.html

Reader comment

This group of fools need to go look at what happened when drugs were liberalised in areas in the Netherlands, Switzerland and in Brixton, in London. Crime rose and it was chaos for the police. It is a copout to liberalise a law just because it seems not to be working. Look at the laws in Malaysia and Singapore. Tough law works.

- Nonpc, Toytown.UK, 22/12/2011 05:41

 

[thiz master]

Does crime really go up where it's legalized?

 

[Return of Radric]

^ I doubt it. this just proves users will do what they have to do to get the drug, price is not a factor. Its called an inelastic demand, the price doesn't affect the demand. Crimes goes up because if you need 100 dollars to get high and not 50 you need to commit enough crimes to make up for that extra 50 dollars. More often users step thier crime game up then step thier useage down.

 

[wooger]

^^ You got brownie points for knowing about price elasticity of demand! ^5

 

[Aether]

I thought that, despite tough laws, southeast Asia still had a fairly large drug "problem"?

 

[Captain.Heroin]

Tough drug laws do NOT work in Malaysia or Singapore. You'd have to be a moron to believe that!!! They only exist so that one of the citizens starts up a meth lab, and eventually amasses more money than the rest of the entire country, the government can find this individual, kill them in public, and have the rest of pathetic poor people cheer on as if a meth lab in their country is the worst of their problems.

If all you want to see is people die, then yes "tough drug laws work"... but that's not going to stop people from using drugs, it's just going to yield more deaths.

I thought that, despite tough laws, southeast Asia still had a fairly large drug "problem"?

You're right, they do. It takes a moron who has never stepped foot into such a country to claim such an ignorant thing, as smart people easily see that harsh penalties for drug production/use have not curbed anything.

^ I doubt it. this just proves users will do what they have to do to get the drug, price is not a factor. Its called an inelastic demand, the price doesn't affect the demand. Crimes goes up because if you need 100 dollars to get high and not 50 you need to commit enough crimes to make up for that extra 50 dollars. More often users step thier crime game up then step thier useage down.

A+ IMO.

 

[Biovail]

Tough drug laws do NOT work in Malaysia or Singapore. You'd have to be a moron to believe that!!! They only exist so that one of the citizens starts up a meth lab, and eventually amasses more money than the rest of the entire country, the government can find this individual, kill them in public, and have the rest of pathetic poor people cheer on as if a meth lab in their country is the worst of their problems.

If all you want to see is people die, then yes "tough drug laws work"... but that's not going to stop people from using drugs, it's just going to yield more deaths.



You're right, they do. It takes a moron who has never stepped foot into such a country to claim such an ignorant thing, as smart people easily see that harsh penalties for drug production/use have not curbed anything.

Well if you kill the drug users, there are less of them... So in a sense tough drug laws do work. But not in a way that should be acceptable in our society (as if the current practice of sending drug users to prison was a good model).

 

[zekethemusicman]

not it doesnt work because the next day someone else will discover drugs, and the day after that someone is born that will use drugs later. I honestly dont know how to say it. YOU CANNOT KEEP HUMANS FROM GETTING HIGH IT IS FUCKING IMPOSSIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

if by some chance a gene therapy was developed that actually retarded a persons ability to get high then over a course of time we would probably evolve a path to inebriation

btw, what good does it do exactly to reduce the amount of peole doing drugs? I know you can factor in personal harm and then crime, but really what cost does that have to society? and how is that cost compared to the struggle itself to keep illegal drugs illegal? or vice versa to keep illegal drugs flowing?

 

[clubberdude]

Well if you kill the drug users, there are less of them... So in a sense tough drug laws do work. But not in a way that should be acceptable in our society (as if the current practice of sending drug users to prison was a good model).

Only at that absolute instance in time.

I'm just guessing here, but for every person killed, there are perhaps 20-50 new drug users that will replace the one killed. Not significant. Even in a country like Malaysia, I'm guessing something like 0.01-0.1% of the total number of drug users are executed; as time goes on, this proportion will decrease (as the authorities wouldn't be able to keep up with the expansion of the number of drug users).