Citation needed.
Look, okay, to be pedantic, maybe you're right it couldn't be "dirt cheap" exactly unless it was subsidized but it could be a lot cheaper than it is now.
Most drugs aren't expensive bc of the difficulty of producing them, they are expensive bc of artificial scarcity caused by legal issues.
For example, look at the price of pharmaceutical opioids when they were prescribed a lot versus now . Those aren't difficult drugs to make necessarily, no reason they should be that expensive. Cocaine is cheap in south America.
Anyways, I'm not saying legalizing a single drug like this will cut the balls off the cartel. I'm saying that it cannot do harm as far as that is concerned and I think that rent seeking distorting the price and various types of inefficient and greedy behavior that are enforced violently and affect prices thrive more in black markets
Im.not even a huge cocaine fan but , I found the idea that legalization would lead to just as bad supply chains to be ridiculous
If I provided a citation I'd be citing myself!
While I'd love to go into the details: I'd just be repeating myself as most of my latest posts are dedicated to the cause. I downloaded the classic synthesis back in the days of dial-up modems, bulletin boards, and Netscape, and thought I'd found some state secret at the time and carried it around thinking that one day I'd give it a bash. Well the laugh is on me. It ain't no state secret anymore to begin with. It's also flawed. And for the first time ever I actually, very recently, sat down with it and worked out the costs (let's forget about expertise and equipment here for a minute). The cost of the chemicals alone vs. the yield makes it a futile exercise. So one thing led to another as is usually the case with me and when I'm chomping at a bit. Short version: there's been many attempts to fully synthesize and improve yields and by qualified and experienced chemists and in controlled environments and in legit laboratories that are worth more than any Cocaine (naturally derived) user could ever use in their lifetime even if they started at birth!
Alright: probably and exaggeration of sorts but I'm sure you get the picture. So total synthesis is out of the question. Yes you can buy 100% pure Cocaine HCL from any number of chemical companies (I'm not talking about China shit here but from the likes of Sigma-Aldrich/Merck). First: check out the prices.. Second: that pharmaceutical Cocaine isn't 100% synthetic (due again to cost vs. yield) i.e. it's still manufactured using Coca Leaf the only difference being is that it's purified to the nth degree for reference material or medical use. Third (and fun fact): the DEA has found the grand total of only three clandestine labs., ever to date, attempting to produce synthetic Cocaine (only one of which was able to perform a stereospecific synthesis of Cocaine) (long story).
So much for not going into detail!
Anyway and point is: we're back to Coca Leaf whichever way you slice it. Already addressed I reckon. Well not totally. The correct subspecies of the Coca plant is, and has been, grown in other countries. As things stand now though: it's limited to around four African countries (and possibly one or two places in Asia). Those African countries are pretty much war zones as things stand now. And if that's an overstatement of sorts: at very least they're more corrupt than most other places on the planet. And if they started to produce Coca Leaf on scale: it wouldn't take long for the factions to figure out what they've been missing out on. The ramifications are obvious. This all being said: there's a this pesky organization known as the United Nations and who would like nothing more than to see the Coca plant eradicated totally from the planet. I could go on. But this is all out there. And pretty sure there are some around here tiring of my Cocaine escapades.
Let me try finish here before this turns into another dissertation!
Cocaine in South America is very cheap. Correct. So let's say the UK Government starts buying wholesale and direct to the UK. It would indeed be dirt cheap. Not to mention a dealer's wet dream i.e. buy dirt cheap Cocaine in the UK, cut it, and export it to the rest of Europe and the East. And by the way: it doesn't follow that because it comes direct from South America that it means it's pure (but another long story). But whatever the case: that's changed nothing in South America. The Coca farmers will still be beholden to the Cartels. There is no way they're going to sit idly back while crops are legally diverted to a-n-other producer (no matter where it may be and who is involved) and they're running short on Coca Leaf. Matter of fact and come to think of it while I type this: we could go right back to the grand scale Escobar way of doing things over there. And come to think of it too (my mind runs rampant with this): maybe by eliminating all the middle men you inadvertently move them from their holes and next thing you know they're offing each other in record numbers at Canary Wharf! How does that grab you?
As noted: I could go on ad infinitum I suppose. Suffice to say that Cocaine is a drug like no other and the only one that I actually know of that is uneconomical to fully synthesize. I know that's a bold statement. And I'm open to correction (I'm sure there'll be Heroin users that will tell me that synthetic Heroin isn't the same as naturally derived Heroin but, in my defense, nothing besides Cocaine has ever been on my radar so for now I'll stand by my statement).
And please don't ask for citations!
I'm promise you I'm not making this up as I go along. And I'm not uploading a few hundred scientific papers, DEA and UNODC docs., and Teks., and various other papers and articles etc. to prove a point. I think my posts somewhere down below in Neuroscience and Pharmacology at least speak for themselves. Put another way: 36 years of fascination and off and on research over the same period (not use i.e. that was over at least 26 years ago) says I'm not sucking all of this from my left thumb!
Dunno if it's something to be proud of. But it is what it is.
The above of course in reference to the drug itself, its production, etc.. As to what I think will be the outcome of full legalization: that is conjecture of course and merely an opinion. Based, probably, on how I'd handle things if I was in charge of some or the other Cartel in South America. Not a fuck is anybody getting their hands on my precious plants (not even the government)!
But then fortunately (or unfortunately i.e. depends on from which angle you come at this): I'm not in charge!
At the moment!