Re:The Heroin Business Is Booming in America
by logfromblammo on Monday May 22, 2017 @10:53AM
(#14394046)
I don't think you can kill the black markets unless you allow anyone [that can meet the regulatory burden] to manufacture and distribute.
And you can't tax them too highly, either, or those black markets spring right back into existence. See moonshining or cigarette smuggling for examples. A 25% excise tax at the point of sale to the consumer is probably the highest you can go. Taxation is, after all, one of the ways in which prohibition was backdoored into existence, and the amount of the tax is the maximum possible profit margin for someone whose sole business is evading the tax.
That leaves open the question of how you keep the most dangerous drugs--generally the opioids--from ruining people. That's really a moot point until the end of prohibition seems imminent. If certain people won't consider any other option, it's useless to throw one out there for discussion.
And you can't tax them too highly, either, or those black markets spring right back into existence. See moonshining or cigarette smuggling for examples. A 25% excise tax at the point of sale to the consumer is probably the highest you can go. Taxation is, after all, one of the ways in which prohibition was backdoored into existence, and the amount of the tax is the maximum possible profit margin for someone whose sole business is evading the tax.
That leaves open the question of how you keep the most dangerous drugs--generally the opioids--from ruining people. That's really a moot point until the end of prohibition seems imminent. If certain people won't consider any other option, it's useless to throw one out there for discussion.