Free Heroin!

Well, almost free.  Following up on an earlier post: The Drug War and Economics

In the previous post I failed to convert 1971 US dollars to 2012 US dollars, so here are the numbers using the US government BLS inflation calculator.  If anybody notices math errors, please point them out.

Heroin price per 0.10 gram
1971 $30 = $170.53 in 2012 dollars
2012 $4 = $0.70 in 1971 dollars

So, after all this law enforcement "helping" keep heroin out of the country, we discover that one bag of heroin has dropped in price from $30 to $0.70 in 1971 dollars.

But that is not the whole story.  As per the previous post, in 1971 a 0.10 gram bag of heroin was only 5% purity.  So for $30 one was purchasing 0.005 grams of heroin.  That $30 purchases $170.53 in other stuff today.

A 1/10 gram bag of heroin is 90% - 95% heroin these days, so the purchaser is buying at least 0.09 grams of heroin for $4.00.  Furthermore, if that 0.09 grams were further "cut" to 5% strength, like the 1971 product, it would produce 18 bags of product.  The 2012 heroin user is getting an absolute bargain from his suppliers.

If one were going to replicate the heroin experience of 1971, he could do it for $0.22(plus some cutting agent)/per dose.

Update: Here is the math from a different approach.  If one wanted 0.09 of a gram of heroin (C₂₁H₂₃NO₅) in 1971, he had to purchase 18 1/10 g. bags @$30/bag, $530.  Today he need only purchase one bag @$4 to get that quantity of heroin.  Now, $4 in 2012 buys about what $0.70 bought in 1971, unless you are talking heroin, marijuana, or cocaine.  In 1971, $0.70 bought almost two gallons of gasoline.  Today (23 Dec 2012), $4.00 buys about 1 1/3 gallons of gas where I live.  Also, $530 dollars from 1971 buy $3069.54 worth of other stuff today, or 767.385 1/10 g. bags of 90% pure heroin.

Now, what of the folks who used to say that the "high price" was keeping many people out of the market, thus "saving" lives?  This stuff is cheaper now than most other street drugs.  Now, what of the stories we would see in fiction of overdoses from "extremely" pure heroin killing people?  I focus on fiction there because I do not recall actual news stories of actual rashes of overdoses due to more pure heroin.  It was frequently used in TV and movie plots.

Well, today this stuff is so cheap that it could be treated as free, yet we do not have legions of addicts roaming the streets.  One is more likely to be accosted for a price-inflated-due-to-taxes cigarette than a mugger trying to feed his much less expensive heroin habit.