On Ganja, Bangalore, And Amsterdam

This is the kind of news that pisses me off: “Four men arrested with 70 kg ganja.” These four decent guys, carrying a decent smoke, were from Andhra Pradesh. I have smoked Andhra ganja – and I recommend it highly. They had traveled to Bangalore to sell their stash – and fell foul of our foul desi Stasi. Thousands of decent Bangaloreans were denied a good smoke. Lose-lose-lose-lose kind of game.

To really understand the dimensions of this lunacy, let us examine things in the light of Jean-Baptiste Say’s “Law of Markets.” This law says that “the sale of X gives rise to the demand for all non-X.” So if the 70 kilos of ganja were to be sold, at about 5 lakhs as the report says, this 5 lakhs would have been used to purchase everything else other than ganja. The four men might have bought four motorcycles – but in this case, their only motorcycle was seized by the Stasi. These men might have bought beer, clothes, shoes, iddlis and what not. All these businesses have lost.

The Lesson:

Every businessman has an interest in seeing that all non-competing goods sell. This is the only way to ensure that the catallaxy hums with full energy.

[To learn more about Say’s Law of Markets, and its implications for the global recession, and free trade, read my recent column here.]

The great European City of Amsterdam possesses such a catallaxy. Every street is lined with shops, and there are huge markets for street vendors as well. Everything is legit: the hash cafes open at 0900 hrs; there are casinos, there is a legal red-light district. The city hums with commercial activity even at night, for great cities never sleep – my first day began at a hash café at 0900hrs, and ended at the Late Night Bar at 0400 hrs the next morning. What an adventure.

Bangalore goes to sleep at 2230 every evening.

The Stasi play Wee Willie Winkie.

The Sheeple Tolerate All This Injustice.

Ban the police, as this song says.