“The higher the risk, the higher the price they can demand for their product”
The price can only go up a limited amount. Most drug addicts do not have an unlimited source of funds. The higher the price, the fewer people whose lives are destroyed by drugs. The higher the price, fewer drug related crimes and drug related costs to society. The higher the price, the fewer families that suffer from a drug addicted family member. The more drug dealers in prison with their assets seized the fewer new people will get involved.
Maybe you don’t eliminate 100% of the problem, you eliminate 90% or more.
Sure, there is a limit to how much people can pay for a drug, but with the most addictive drugs, addicts don’t limit themselves to their own budget. If they don’t have money to pay for the drug, they will go out and do anything to get the money. So, I think your idea that you can eliminate 90% of use this way is very optimistic. Maybe you can reduce it 20 or 30%, but I doubt much more than that.
Most of the serious addicts I’ve known get the vast majority of their money through theft, so in some ways the do have unlimited resources, if the price goes up they just steal more, which means you get MORE drug related crimes and costs to society.
They do through cons and theft. An addict’s mind will rewire itself to do anything it takes for the drug. Steal from their own mother, sell their children, etc.
Right now the addict process goes like this:
-Addict steal $1000 worth of stuff from us EVERY DAY and sells it for $100.
-Addict hands $100 to a dealer for $10 worth of product.
-Addict gets caught and stays in jail at a cost to us of $60k a year.
-If the addict gets injured by bad drugs or violence, he ends up in a hospital and the incredible costs are paid by us.
-Once the addict is out of jail/hospital he continues the process over again until he dies. Usually draining society of millions of dollars while alive.
IMO, it would be far cheaper and safer to give addicts drugs, treatment and a place to sleep. Addiction seems to be genetic and 1-2% of the population has always fallen into some form of it.