D4DPR Expert and CATO Institute Fellow Dr. Jeffrey Singer was interviewed in this article from The National News Desk.
In discussing a recent Gallup poll on Americans perception that the nation is making progress with the "illegal drug problem," Singer says:
"'The harder the enforcement, the harder the drug... Strict enforcement incentivizes the cartels and whoever else is dealing in drugs to come up with more potent forms, because, for the risk you're taking, it makes it more worth the risk, because you could sell more of it. You could subdivide it into more units for sale, and also, if it's more potent, you could usually make it smaller and easier to smuggle.'
Singer called it the 'iron law of prohibition.'
'So, for example, during the alcohol prohibition, they weren't smuggling in beer and wine, they were smuggling in whiskey... And so, in 2012, the cartels figured out if you add a little fentanyl... to the heroin, you could smuggle in the heroin in much tinier pouches.'"
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