Addicted to Regulating

Alex Tabarrok reports on regulations purported to halt meth production (scroll down to the 7:20 a.m. post) and their short-lived effects. Economists found that restricting the sale of decongestants did reduce methamphetamine use for up to four months, after which things returned to normal.

So, the state regulates a legal substance and gets a temporary drop in illegal activity, then has to impose more and more regulations to try to get that effect again. Sounds … addictive.