Economic Watch SHOULD DRUG USE BE LEGALIZED?
GARY S. BECKER

08/17/1987
Business Week
Pg. 22
Copyright 1987 McGraw-Hill, Inc.

A long with many other countries, the U. S. prohibits the sale and consumption of many drugs, including marijuana, cocaine, and heroin. Repeated ''wars'' on drug pushers have failed to stop the illegal trade in such drugs. The problems arising from the failure to halt drug traffic are big enough to warrant serious attention to other options. In this spirit, I advocate the radical solution used during the Depression to end the prohibition on alcoholic beverages: We should remove all restrictions on the sale to adults of marijuana, cocaine, and other drugs where the legal ban has created more problems than it solves. Drugs, of course, should not be available to children.

The constitutional amendment to end Prohibition was a confession that the U. S. experiment in banning drinking had failed dismally. It was not an expression of support for heavy drinking or alcoholism. Similarly, my proposal to legalize some drugs does not indicate that I approve of addiction and drug use. Rather, it is a way to combat the many severe problems created by the ban on these drugs. EASE THE PRESSURE. Criminals, including highly organized networks, dominate drug traffic, just as they controlled the production and distribution of beer and liquor during Prohibition. If legitimate companies are allowed to take control of production and distribution of drugs, violence in the drug industry would end, just as it did with alcoholic beverages. Competition among these companies would reduce the monopoly power that pushers now wield over many addicts who do not have alternative suppliers. Defective drugs that cause poisoning and overdoses would be much less common if companies selling legalized drugs feared expensive lawsuits and the loss of their reputations. The present secrecy surrounding the use of illegal drugs also helps spread the AIDS virus. Addicts contract this disease from contaminated needles and go on to infect others.

Drugs are expensive mainly because their prices include a sizable allowance for the risks of apprehension and punishment and for the cost of bribing enforcement officials. The large reduction in drug prices from legalizing drugs would greatly ease the financial pressure on addicts. They would not have to turn to prostitution, burglary, embezzlement, and other crimes to support a habit that consumes all their resources.

Under the present system, users of drugs may lose their jobs and have trouble finding other work even when they continue to perform satisfactorily. A dramatic example is the banning or temporary suspension of drug-using players from major league basketball, baseball, and football. For repeated offenses players are banned regardless of their performance. Banned players must bear the financial and other burdens of any continued drug use while suffering enormous drops in income. If drugs were legal, users would be fired from professional teams and other jobs only for the same reason as drinkers: They can no longer do the job.

It is widely but wrongly believed that addicts and other regular users of drugs do not respond to changes in price. Although direct evidence is fragmentary, what is known about other highly addictive substances clearly suggests that the demand for drugs expands when their prices fall. For example, the level of smoking and heavy drinking is sensitive to the cost of cigarettes and alcoholic beverages. A study by Professors Philip J. Cook and George Tauchen of Duke University shows that imposing even moderate excise taxes on liquor greatly reduces death rates from cirrhosis of the liver, a disease associated with heavy drinking.

This price sensitivity raises the main argument against legalizing drugs: that making them substantially cheaper would expand their use. This would add to the number of automobile accidents, crimes, and other harm to innocent people caused by those under the influence of drugs. But the very sensitivity to price that stimulates greater use also suggests a partial solution to such problems. Putting moderate excise taxes on the legal sale of drugs could curtail the demand for them to manageable levels--and without imposing the financial burden on heavy users that currently leads to so much social disorder. Taxation would also contribute needed federal and state revenue. HARSH PUNISHMENT. People arrested for driving under the influence of drugs generally escape with minor punishment. Evidence from several countries indicates that harsh punishments for drunk drivers greatly reduce drunk driving. For this reason, I am confident that punishment, including imprisonment, could discourage many people from heavy use of drugs before driving or engaging in other potentially destructive behavior.

Legalizing drugs will not solve every problem. But it is the best feasible solution. Following the example set by the ending of Prohibition, we should legalize marijuana, cocaine, and certain other drugs we have failed to control. Excise taxes and punishments could hold drug use to tolerable levels and discourage their use prior to engaging in activities that might harm others.

As Prohibition failed, so has the ban on the sale and consumption of drugs. Without condoning addiction and drug use, legalization could help combat severe problems

-- GARY S. BECKER IS UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR OF ECONOMICS AND SOCIOLOGY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO