Cost of Street Drugs if They Were Legal

Factual Questions
1

Let’s say, hypothetically, that all street drugs are legalized. Any addict can walk into a clinic and get some, no questions asked. The clinics would have to buy the stuff from drug companies, just like pharmacies buy their (legal) drugs from drug companies.

What would be the cost, to the consumer, if street drugs (pot, heroin, cociane, crack, meth, whatever else you want to discuss) were produced in mass quantities and sold as retail goods on the open market?

My guesses:

Pot - extremely cheap, in light of the fact that anybody can grow it in their back yard with little agricultural skill. My guess would be less than $1 for a 20-pack of joints.

Heroin - also extremely cheap. Aren’t all opiates (Percocet, Vicodin, etc.) and their relatives (isn’t heroin an opiate?) derived from synthetic chemicals that are hideously cheap to manufacture? ISTR reading that here on the Dope.

Cocaine - Here I’m not so sure. I think coca leaves are pretty ubiquitous in Central America and easy to grow, and the process of turning them to cocaine probably isn’t too complicated, but on this point I profess extreme ignorance.

Crack - Again, no clue. Isn’t crack basically just cocaine mixed with baking soda and put through a chemical process?

Meth - Probably relatively expensive, but that’s a guess. Meth’s basic building blocks (AFAIK) are pseudeophedrine (expensive to the consumer, but I don’t know how much of that is markup), anhydrous ammonia (never been in a position to buy it, so no clue how expensive it is), and I believe lithium batteries (pretty expensive) also play a role.

2

Well, we can be sure that Walgreens, Rite-Aid, Target, Wal-Mart, etc. run a far more efficient delivery system than the current street drug delivery & purchase system. So at least that part of the cost should be significantly reduced.

3

While its not the exact scenerio you are asking about, but in the Netherlands, where marijuana is sold openly (I think it is technically “decriminalized”) its not nearly as cheap as what you are envisioning; I know that it would become less expensive, but not to the dramatic extent of a dollar for a 20 pack of reefers…

4

Should marijuana be cheaper to produce than tobacco?

5

Cost or price?

Go to your nearest convenience store and compare the price of bottled drinking water to the price of gasoline. Then consider the costs.

While it is easy to grow hemp, it isn’t as easy to grow high quality pot. And there is plenty of room for variations.

So while I really don’t know, I would also be suspect of anyone who believes they could predict the market price with any accuracy. Who could have predicted that people would pay $1.49 for 12oz of bottled water, when they could get essentially the same product for free from the tap next to the gas pump (or, these days, next to the coin op air compressor)?

6

I cant imagine they would be cheaper. One dollar for a pack of marijuanna cigarettes? In reality, the drug trade is subsidized by desperate people looking for quick money. Farmers dont get fair value for their crops, in fact Im sure there’s a lot of thuggery involved there as both are doing something illegal. The people transporting the drugs take huge risks for little money and the street sellers get a very small part of the profit.

Imagine giving all these people living wages and fair market value for their labor. Imagine 401Ks, health plans, salesmen, taxes, lobbying, safety regulations, etc etc. Think about competition. You wont be the only guy selling joints so now you have to worry about marketing and advertising.

Essentially, youve become the cigarette business. Cigarettes, even with taxes removed, are still no where near as cheap as you suggest illegal drugs will be.

7

Yes, theoretically.
Hemp plants will grow successfully over a much larger geographical range than tobacco plants.

8

According to the article below you pretty much guessed the untaxed price of marijuana perfectly, but in reality you’re thinking way too low because of tax. In Amsterdam the price of a gram of marijuana is about $10-30 depending on quality, so if you were paying $10 a gram for the weed and putting 0.5g in each joint, you end up paying a lot more than $1 for a pack of 20 joints.

This article says that in Oakland, where marijuana is legal for specific medical purposes, it’s only taxed at 9.5%, but that if it were legalized for recreational use the “sin taxes” would probably end up stonkingly high:

9

These things wouldn’t be sold purely based on how easy they are to manufacture though, would they?

There would be a huge demand for completely legal and potent marijuana. Even if supply could keep up with demand, the clinics/pharmacies could still charge most anything they wanted and would sell insane amounts.

I don’t see marijuana being as cheap as outlined in the OP.

The other stuff might go for cheap just to help curb whatever would be left of the underground market for the drugs, not because of their ease of production.

10

I would be very surprised if pot were any cheaper than tobacco. Remember, the cost is not so much about growing the stuff as it is paying for wages, factories, advertising and transportation. And you can bet it would be taxed at least as heavily as cigarettes.

Heroin shouldn’t be much more expensive than morphine or other opiates. Here’s something with actual numbers: http://molpharm.wisc.edu/wcpi/prof/focus/opioid.htm Note: uses 1994 price data.

Cocaine is not easy to make and there are many steps involved. The common methods of making cocaine would not meet US safety standards (for either the product or the workers). So… I don’t know how to arrive at a legal price there. It might be easier to pretend cocaine is like morphine and use some of the ranges in the previous link.

11

I disagree with some of the assumptions in this thread. HeyHomie, the OP,

Pot- Once you plant the seeds, it’s nearly impossible not to grow pot. However, to grow it commercially, you have to figure product per acre. You’ll need pickers to reap the buds, and you’ll get maybe 3 rounds of buds per year. At end of season, you can bale the rest for cattle feed and/or fiber. Until John Deere makes a potpicker, it’s manual labor. I’m thinking comparable to organic veggies.

Opium is cheap to grow, if you have very cheap labor. You don’t just press a bunch of poppy pods. Some parts of the flower are highly poisonous. Workers walk among the flowers slitting the pods to let them weep out their sticky pre-opium stuff, which is gathered and boiled down. From there it could be mechanized.

Coca harvest is simpler. I gather it’s more like a press-and-process procedure, but I only have a thin, sketchy idea how it happens.

Meth is a chemical process. The typical meth lab involve some extremely hazardous materials. If legal, though, it would probably revert back to the legal drug companies, who don’t have to resort to those insane home lab workarounds.

The FDA: None of this legalization would happen without regulation. Opiates, methamphetamines, and cocaine are already regulated for quality and purity. Regulation would effectively take it out of the hands of organized crime, because they don’t bother with quality and purity.

I really think all these drugs except pot would go right back to Lilly and SmithKline, who made them before they were illegal. Pot might, too, but I think it will go to an agricultural model.

Covered In Bees! I’ll get back to you. I have to go cook supper.

12

Excluding Taxes, yes. Thats the joy of a free market. Look at it like coffee. Sure we can make coffee at home, even grind our own beans for way less, but we still pay $5 for a big cup at starbucks. Those who can afford it will pay for it and those who want quality will pay for it. Everyone else will buy the lesser mass produced not so hot but does the job stuff.

13

I think it’d be similar to alcohol. You can find generic beer and expensive beer.

A huge part of street drugs is you don’t know what you’re getting. You cut coke with other benign substances to increase profits.

Different varieties of marijuna have different potentcies.

14

Exactly, the pricing will max out at what the market will bear which has nothing to do with the actual cost of production. Nike shoes cost a few dollars to make, Louis Vutton bags cost a few dollars to make, etc but people pay hundreds of dollars for them because of percieved value.

The idea that drugs, the most sought after commodity in life aside from food, shelter, and sex will be priced like generic white bread at Aldi’s isnt convincing.

Its not the tax man who is your enemy here its Joe and Jane Pot Buyers. If they drive up the price then that’s that.

15

drachillix and Markxxx: I see what you guys are getting at and it’s now easier for me to believe pot could be cheap.

I’m admittedly still skeptical that even the median price of pot would be low in general, but I now can see how it would be.

:slight_smile:

EDIT:

This is very ominous. Can you at least tell me if I should take shelter?

16

I thought cocaine or an equivalent analog was available to doctors under the same controls for opiates.

17

You can get it here for $66 for 50 mg.

According to the DEA, the average street retail price of pure cocaine in 2007 was $166.90 a gram.

18

Not a chance. You can walk into a clinic and (sort of) legally buy weed in California as long as you have a medical card. It costs the same, or more, than street value. $50-$60 for an 1/8th ounce. And it’s not really that easy to grow. The plants require constant care and precise growing conditions. It takes a long time for them to mature. Most people would much rather go down to the store and buy some than take the time and effort necessary to grow their own.

ETA: plus keep in mind good old supply and demand. There is, and would continue to be a high demand for pot. So regardless of how much it costs to produce, it will be sold at the maximum price the market can bear.

19

Liability costs would be a big unknown. Meth and possibly cocaine may be unsaleable for that reason.

Also, would legalization of cocaine or heroin here do anything to disrupt the cartels that produce coca or poppies in other countries? If not, that limits how far the price can drop.

20

FWIW, the one and only time I was prescribed Percocet (generic), it was in the ER. My itemized statement showed 60-cents per pill. I have no idea if the hospital was overcharging ridiculously or not.