Is The War On Drugs Good For Dealers?

It seems that a hardline, tough no tolerance policing of drugs could in fact benefit the people who the policies are set up to take down. According to recent research, the harder the drug policy, the more the dealers thrive in loyal markets where the purity of their drugs has to be improved to retain regular customers.

When they add this effect into the model, some dealers respond by lowering the quality of the drugs they sell; they can get away with this because their customers become especially reluctant to look elsewhere. But more dealers react by working harder to build a good relationship with customers, because finding new ones has become harder than before. They do this by raising the purity of their drugs, making it cheaper for users to get the same hit.

Drug use is a public health issue, and treating it as a criminal justice only exacerbates any negative consequences.