Fix and Fixation

   The government is cracking down on smuggling to eliminate the supply of narcotics to users and abusers in America, and is also tightening the rules on prescription painkillers. One result of the rule-tightening is that it makes pills more expensive and harder to get, as doctors become more careful about prescribing narcotic painkillers. Cynics point out that it's also easier for enforcers to fill their quota of drug busts by tracking doctors than it is by chasing street dealers.
   So, because users -- legitimate and otherwise -- have a harder time getting their supplies, they turn to street dealers. As the New York Times reported, heroin is often cheaper and easier to get than prescription pain pills.

   Economics 101, the Law of Supply and Demand, says that if the supply is lower but demand remains, the price will rise, and new suppliers will enter the market to take advantage of continued demand and higher prices. That law applies to everything, including narcotics, legal and otherwise.
   In cracking down on smugglers, then, the government is restricting the supply, thereby causing an increase in cost to the user.
   Wouldn't it be better to work on reducing demand, through education and public health efforts?

   Speaking of misplaced efforts, the National Rifle Association has long been fond of saying, "Guns don't kill people; people kill people." True enough, but let's rephrase it to say this: "People use guns to kill people."
   So which is the source of the murder problem -- guns or people? And which should be the focus of resolving the problem?
   Laws restricting gun ownership are valuable, but equally valuable are efforts to educate people in the appropriate use of firearms. The NRA started as an educational group, to encourage the use of rifles in target practice. And it was partly sponsored by the U.S. military, so that young folks would have at least a passing familiarity with guns when they entered military service.
   However, it seems that the military dropped its sponsorship years ago, and the NRA became a lobbying group primarily financed by firearms manufacturers. It's hard to believe that membership dues are sufficient to finance all the lobbying efforts and to hire experts in writing legislation favorable to the industry, which are then taken to policy makers, saving them the trouble of researching and writing legislation themselves.