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<br /> <br /> commodities follow the consumer price index over time, these <br /> <br /> numbers indicate that if no money had been spent on this program, <br /> <br /> the price per ounce would be exactly what it is 1996, before this <br /> <br /> program began. In terms of long-term price and thus of <br /> <br /> interdicting long-term supply, this program has achieved exactly <br /> <br /> nothing. <br /> <br /> "This is as predictable as the change of seasons," was the <br /> <br /> response of several members of the UH Hilo Business and Economics <br /> <br /> faculty. "We use these drug programs as an example in our <br /> <br /> Economics 101 course to explain to our students about the basics <br /> <br /> of supply and demand. By raising the price of any commodity, you <br /> <br /> attract a lot of resources into trying to produce that <br /> <br /> commodity." 3' Thus, it is not difficult to understand this <br /> <br /> decline in price when we think of marijuana as simply any other <br /> <br /> agricultural commodity. The price of macnuts several years ago <br /> <br /> was 1.2S cents per pound; today it is 60 cents per pound. As the <br /> <br /> yield for a given commodity increases, more people enter the <br /> <br /> market and grow that commodity. Since more grow, there is more <br /> <br /> supply. More supply means the price drops. This tendency for <br /> <br /> free markets to correct for short-term government disruption is <br /> <br /> well-accepted by economists. <br /> <br /> Another interpretation of these numbers is that this program <br /> <br /> has been a short-term success and then a victim of that very <br /> <br /> success. This program took 13 years to steeply raise the price; <br /> <br /> the free market then took 3 years to drive the price back down to <br /> <br /> 1980 levels. And the free-market made a profit on it. <br /> <br /> <br /> ' 11 <br />