The Economic Anatomy of a Drug War: Criminal Justice in the Commons.

• Author: Thornton, Mark

It would be marvelous if every prohibitionist in America could have a copy of Rasmussen and Benson's (R&B) outstanding new book that provides a complete autopsy of this public policy failure. Unfortunately, a high percentage of prohibitionists are poorly educated with many not venturing beyond the sport section of the newspaper or romance novels [1]. I can, however, highly recommend this book to economists and specialists in crime and drug policy.

The use of economic principles, economic theory, policy analysis, and historical interpretation in R&B will be like sweet music to the ears of economists. Their book illustrates how the foundations of economic theory (scarcity, opportunity costs, and property rights) can be employed to analyze a public policy to yield a comprehensive understanding of an otherwise illogical public policy.

Even specialists in crime and drug policy have a great deal to learn from this book. R&B get to the bottom of the murky waters of "addiction," rigorously investigate the linkages between drugs and crime, provide a comprehensive account of the effects of drug law enforcement, and explore the fundamental weakness of our criminal justice system. The Economic Anatomy of a Drug War is simply the most compelling book on the war on drugs, including my own [2].

R&B begin their analysis by clearing the debate of political rhetoric and by demonstrating that our criminal justice system is a common property resource. They show that our criminal justice system is susceptible to the problems of the commons: the system tends to get overused, the quality of production decreases, and, in the limit, the total social value of the resources are reduced to zero. We appear to be rapidly approaching that limit given our extremely high crime rates and the degeneration of respect for law and order that has taken place in society.

While R&B examine all the essential aspects of the drug war and support their analysis with evidence, the foundation of the book rests on their (and their coauthors') previously published technical research. Among the more important findings are that increases in drug enforcement encourages crime by reducing the probability of arrest. Increased enforcement also knocks drug dealers out of spatial equilibrium, the restoration of which requires violent behavior on the part of drug dealers.

Using the confiscated assets of drug kingpins to help finance the war on drags was suppose to be the salvation of drug...