Future Now
The IFTF Blog
Happy Belated Canada Day?
As PharmaGossip recently noted, "even illegal drugs are cheaper in Canada than the US." This headline summarizes last week's report in the Economist.com:
The street price of cocaine varies hugely across the world. No surprise that it is cheapest in Colombia, the world's biggest producer of coca: at $2, a gram costs less than a Big Mac. Geography is an obvious price factor. The farther away a country from the main producers in South and Central America, and the more isolated it is, the higher the cost to traffick there. In far-flung New Zealand, a gram costs a wallet-busting $714.30.
This economics lesson reminded me of the "eat local" sustainability movement. Think of the environmental damage caused by shipping cocaine to New Zealand!
I was most intrigued to learn that,
In Canada the wholesale price [of cocaine] is 50% more than in America, but Canadians pay 40% less on the street. It could be that policing is more zealous in some countries, or that there is less competition among suppliers.
What does all of this have to do with IFTF's Health Horizons Program? Not much, though I could draw some connections if I tried. Really, it was the random headline referencing yet another thing Canada does better(??) than the U.S. that appealed to my sense of patriotism and whimsy today.