Rebecca Ehren, Gina Gordon, & Kasey Greer
Sex, Booze, & Drugs: An Overview
 Prostitution
 Illegal everywhere in U.S. except certain Nevada counties
 Prohibition
 Illegal 1920-1933; resulting from temperance movement
 “The War on Drugs”
 Cocaine illegal 1914; increasingly strict laws to present
The Law Enforcement Approach
 Target sellers, not buyers
 Each arrest has the potential to prevent multiple
transactions
 Possible risk raises opportunity costs for potential
suppliers, which decreases supply and increases the price
for buyers
 Using law of demand, this increase in price should
decrease the quantity demanded
Issues with This Approach
 The high opportunity costs for suppliers encourages them to
sell smaller quantities with greater potency to retain the same
profit
 Booze
 During Prohibition, speakeasies served more potent hard liquor,
increasing alcohol poisoning deaths
 30x the number of people died from acute alcohol poisoning during
Prohibition than do today
 Binge underage drinking
 Drugs
 Suppliers sell more of the purer drugs due to increased value per unit
 $50,000: 1 pound pure heroin OR 100 pounds of marijuana
 Regulation by law enforcement encourages suppliers to deal
with their problems internally instead of turning to the public
forum
 Sex
 Prostitutes in Nevada counties are regularly tested for AIDS and other
venereal diseases
 Spread is nearly nonexistent versus Newark, NJ, where approximately
52% of prostitutes have AIDS
 Booze & Drugs
 Illegality draws criminals (who have a comparative advantage in illegal
activities)
 Suppliers must resort to violence to uphold their contracts and deal with
disputes
 After Prohibition ended, murder rate in America drops sharply
Implications of Chosen Approach
 Illegal markets are less safe for consumers and society
 Approach has not succeeded in eliminating the
underground markets
 Prices of cocaine and heroin are at record low levels,
encouraging more buyers instead of deterring them
 Is it time to rethink these policies?
 Passage of the 21st Amendment