ABSTRACT
The preceding chapter established the fact that there are economic and political dimensions to the illicit drug industry, alongside the better known medical, moral and social aspects. It also noted that for some of the illicit drug producing nations the economic and political consequences of a too rapid reduction of output could lead to internal destabilization. However, the use of economics and economic theory to make sense of illicit drugs provides an alternative view: one that sees illicit drugs like any other tradable commodity. As a consequence, this allows the use of economic theory as an alternative policy dynamic. This chapter builds upon that idea. Again, as in the previous chapter, illicit drugs are stripped of any moral content and seen only as a commodity to be traded, and thus subject to the laws of economics, in the same way as butter, eggs or cars.
