ABSTRACT

Protecting individuals from themselves is a legitimate reason, in the eyes of economic theory, to justify banning drugs. Nonetheless, public policymakers have not looked to economists to make a decision for or against enforcement of drug prohibition. Anti-drug enforcement is driven by factors other than the enthusiastic search for economic efficiency. History, moral standards and several more or less accurate descriptions of the effects of drugs on individuals and society as a whole play a much more important role than economists do.