Some argue that the laws of economics would solve the drug problem if drugs were made legal. Everyone is in agreement that the price of drugs would decrease and the demand for drugs would increase if the government legalized drugs. The law of supply and demand dictates that buyers would buy less of a commodity (demand would decrease) when the price for that commodity goes up. However, that theory doesn't hold for addictive substances. When the cost of cocaine goes up in an area, there is no subsequent decrease in demand because the users are addicted; their addiction pushes them to obain that drug, regardless of the price. Experts estimate that legalization would increase the number of users of marijuana and cocaine to around 50 or 60 million and the number of users of heroin to around ten million.

When opium was legal in the U.S. at the turn of the 19th to 20th century, the number of addicts compared to the population was two to three times what the proportion is now. Legalization would result in an escalation of drug-related deaths. Some estimate that the deaths would increase up to 500,000 each year. What a terrible price to pay.