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Over the weekend, acting on a tip, police found 700 ecstasy pills in Queens. The pills, selling at $30 a pop, were to be sold to clubs in Flushing and Woodhaven. Gothamist noticed that one of the suspects, Luigi Caminiti, lives in Whitestone with his mother and sister. Which reminded us of the NY Times Magazine article this past weekend, about economist Steven Levitt, whose unorthodox approaches to understanding social situations has made him a guru in the field of modern economics. Specifically, it's the mention of his paper with Sudhir Venkatesh, ''An Economic Analysis of a Drug-Selling Gang's Finances,'' (PDF here) which "found that the average street dealer lives with his mother because the take-home pay is, frankly, terrible." And therefore, crime does not pay.
Economics of Ecstasy
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It's the same media that NEVER mentioned Muslims' hatred of Israel as a possible motive for 9/11.
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It's too bad the paper costs $5 to download, otherwise I'd love to read it. I guess I'll just have to keep watching The Wire to learn the economics of the drug business.
I think the PDF brings you to the paper.
Hard to believe the price of E hasn't gone up much in the last 10-15 years. Everything else has gone up--homes, pizzas, CDs, martinis, movie tickets. Dollar for dollar, E is probably the best entertainment value out there.
I think raising the cost would be very difficult considering the quality of e has gone down significantly. Most pills you see on the market don't contain a single trace of MDMA.
i always wonder what happens to all these pills once the cops get them. There must be a huge warehouse that holds all these drugs. Man... let me in.
I would agree with the dollar-for-dollar entertainment value of E. However, regular users of E develop a tolerance and quickly need to spend more in order to get the same effect, thus needing 4 pills for $80 instead of 1 for $20. But don't let anyone fool you. E dealers make money. They can get a bag of 500 for as little as $2000 and then sell them in just one weekend for $15-$25 each. The quality indeed sucks, but eventually you meet the right (wrong) people who carry the pure stuff that knocks your socks off. All in all E is a BAD thing, as I've learned from my experience as a DJ and clubber...I've seen the good, bad, and ugly of it.
I say get a small bottle of Absolut, mix it with a bottle of V8 Splash, and drink it on your way to wherever you're going. THAT is the best bang for the buck!
Not to mention e kicks the seratonin right outta your brain and leaves swiss-cheese-like holes.
e is a common drug that has been used over many years everyone has there phase of drugs i personally use coke when i party with my friends i now the kid he isnt a bad kid he was just involved with the wrong people i would never expect him to sell it the price varys on it depending on where u go i just hope it all works out for the best