Tuesday, July 26, 2005

The Marketplace Protects Itself.

While, the product in this story is bad, it is a very interesting illustration how marketplaces are self regulating.

Michelle Malkin picks up on a story about another nefarious Osama Bin Laden plot.

The New York Post is reporting that "Osama bin Laden tried to buy a massive amount of cocaine, spike it with poison and sell it in the United States, hoping to kill thousands of Americans one year after the 9/11 attacks."

The plot failed "when the Colombian drug lords bin Laden approached decided it would be bad for their business - and, possibly, for their own health, according to law-enforcement sources familiar with the Drug Enforcement Administration's probe of the aborted transaction."
Source: Michelle Malkin - BIN LADEN COKE PLOT?


Michelle then quotes another blogger as saying how nice of them when their product already causes uncounted death and woe. Yes, but that is the wrong take here. The take we should take out of this is how Coke manufacturers realize what someone poisoning their product would do. Yes, they could have scored a big sale but if Bin Laden then would have poisoned the product and sold it then what would happen to the Drug Lord's business? Of course, it would decline. The marketplace protects itself.

However, I am slightly suspicious as to the truth of the story. Terrorists often use illicit drugs sales to help their finances. They too often have the same interest in making sure the consumers of illicit drugs continue to purchase. Also, I just have this notion that a surge in deaths due to illicit drug contamination would not attract a whole lot of attention.

It seems to me most people would just say "when you play with fire..." and use it as lesson to their children not to use illicit drugs. Every now and then this happens anyway, usually the product hitting the street is more pure than normal and addicts use their regular mixing ratios and end up overdosing.
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