As enforcement intensifies, a prohibited good becomes more concentrated and more dangerous.
Cowan's 1986 formulation, illustrated by American prohibition shifting consumption from beer to spirits, and by the modern shift from heroin to fentanyl. Concentration is what survives interdiction.
In practice
- A ban on a lower-strength product moves the trade to a concentrated one that is easier to conceal and harder to dose.
- A crackdown on street sales moves the supply online, where the transaction is safer for the seller and the product less verifiable.
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- Law & Politics
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- What can be proved and measured about power