ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the social process of considerable interest, and the spread of drugs. A simple dynamic model of a drug epidemic in an idealized community is built up from basic assumptions concerning the interaction of subpopulations—pushers, police, and not-yet-addicted residents of the community. The chapter discusses the model combines elements of the epidemic, ecosystem, combat, and arms race models. Equilibria of the resulting dynamical system are located and classified using tools of linearized stability analysis. It presents a spatial—reaction-diffusion—variant. The chapter reveals that supply, demand, and price considerations are introduced; essential, and perhaps counterintuitive, relationships between legalization, price, and crime. It discusses all sorts of implicit assumptions concerning the factors; positions on legalization reflect fundamental attitudes on the appropriate role of government in regulating individual choices generally. From a purely intellectual standpoint, the discussion suggests the relevance to social science of seemingly distant areas like mathematical epidemiology and ecosystem modeling.
