Comments Elsewhere

mrfisher,

If you personally want to offer narcotics for free, then in a free society you’d have every right to do so. I hope you don’t propose to present me with the bill, however, or to force those who are selling drugs at a profit to stop doing so.

For what it’s worth, if you propose to ENFORCE a price ceiling of zero, that would virtually guarantee tremendous shortages of drugs unless those footing the bill have a nearly unlimited budget that they’re willing to devote to providing the drugs. If they don’t, and shortages and the attendant rationing result, then you’ll merely re-create the black market that exists under Prohibition: people will pay under the table for access to drugs now, or drugs over and above the amount on their ration card. Either you can let that market flourish (in which case you give up on the enforcement), or else you can escalate the use of force in the attempt to suppress it (in which case you end up with much the same situation that you have now).