*Lucrative New Markets*

Lucrative New Markets
This New York Times article via Hit and Run (in case you didn’t know, New York has high cigarette taxes):

“A lot of people who were selling pot or heroin are now selling cigarettes,” said a 25-year-old struggling actor from East Harlem who said that he needs to dabble in cigarette dealing to make ends meet. “You can make the same amount of money,” he said, “and you don’t get locked away as long.”

What should be most startling about this news item to the drug warriors is that, despite billions of dollars spent on interdiction and extremely oppressive drug laws in New York, illicit drug supply and dealer market competition are vigorous enough to make the switch to illegal tobacco sales economically attractive.
But then again, the drug warriors clearly slept during economics class, since they don’t understand supply and demand or elasticity.

(Plagiarizing myself from Hit and Run’s comments)