Drug prohibition sows the seeds of its own defeat by creating a highly lucrative and resilient black market that is always adjusting to enforcement efforts. When police arrest a drug dealer, someone else takes his place. Even dismantling an entire trafficking operation does not have a substantial and lasting impact on retail prices or consumption because it creates opportunities that other organizations are happy to seize.
This enforcement problem is compounded when drug transactions are hard to detect because they take place on the dark web. Yet the authors of a recent study suggest that busting dark-web dealers is a cost-effective way of reducing access to illegal drugs. The study, which was published in the journal Information Systems Research, not only does not support that claim; it underlines the futility and perverse consequences of trying to get between people and the drugs they want.
