Question

If we accept the argument that the use of addictive drugs tends to lead to an increase in other types of crime because users of such drugs tend to commit other crimes in order to fund their drug habit,Explain, using the concept of elasticity of demand and a well labelled diagram, why a policy emphasizing education about the dangers of drugs, and treatment of addicts is more likely to succeed in reducing crime committed by addicts and other illicit drug users.

Answer 1

Elaticity of demand is the responsiveness of demand to changes in prices .It has been found that changes in the price of illicit drugs have influenced the decision making of youths to use such drugs . Hard core drug users as well as occasional drug users have responded to rise in prices by consuming less of the drugs .The evidence is adults are sensitive to the price of drugs and higher the price, the smaller the number of people using drugs. It has been believed that education will help to reduce drug addicts and also reduce crime. Drug education educates adults about the dangers of drug use and makes effort to prevent the use of illicit drugs.Drug education can be given in numerous ways like advertising and awareness raising campaigns such as UK government's FRANK campaign or .US media campaign.There are also school based drug education campaign like DARE(Drug Abuse Resistant Education).However research has shown no evidence of success of such programs .