It has been estimated that in the United States the costs of
all addictive drug enforcement are almost $40 billion per year. Methamphetamine
is the second most used illegal drug in the United States, behind marijuana. Abusing
drugs like these does not only have significant costs to the individual, but
there are public health costs that include child maltreatment, foster care,
environmental damage, and hospitalization from overindulgence. The DEA’s
mission, besides lessening the direct damages of drug abuse, is reducing these
said externalities. Unlike many other
abused drugs, meth is manufactured with precursor ingredients available to many
without restrictions. By restricting the
availability of these precursor ingredients, the quantity of meth will decrease
and price will increase, thus limiting the use for many abusers of this drug
initially. However, this form of intervention will open up the possibilities
for black markets.
The most active ingredients in the production of
methamphetamine are either ephedrine or pseudoephedrine. To combat the
production of meth, in 1988 congress passed the Chemical Diversion and
Trafficking Act, which was a policy that gave the DEA authority to the
wholesale distribution of these precursors. There was one major loophole in this policy however: all tablet forms of
ephedrine and pseudoephedrine were exempt.
Due to this specific lack of detail in policy, congress enacted the
Comprehensive Methamphetamine Control Act of 1996, which required registration
of all forms of precursors used to synthesize methamphetamine. In the short run
this policy proved extremely effective as prices of the drug increased
dramatically, but in the long run, after the temporary disruptions to meth
producers have died down, it is uncertain whether these precursor interventions
are effective.
Government interventions
against drugs are initially very effective; however, in attempt to eliminate
externalities, intervention creates the black market. This can be seen as a
negative externality as well because the black market provides these precursors
that the government is trying to get rid of and continues to harm society. Due
to this inevitable response to government interventions against drugs, it is
hard to gauge whether they are really worth the expenditure. With that said, as
long as there is any sort of positive feedback from interventions than there is
a valid argument to have them.
- Juan Vasquez
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