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On the other hand, the high street price of these drugs has subsidized a lot of research that could have neat private-sector applications. Perhaps diverse legal regimes are the best way to go.

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For some reason I doubt either the DEA or the drug lords are going to publish their findings in an academic journal.

True. However, one might expect that as drug lords get richer, the stability of legitimate businesses becomes more attractive. So if they can earn $5 million/year selling coke (but worrying about their safety) or $500,000/year selling the data-mining software they developed to keep their capos in line, the latter may be attractive.

In addition, such techniques might be passed along by folks like this guy: http://www.scribd.com/doc/10429/Former-Marijuana-Smuggler-Se...

But it might profit the drug lords to Open Source their methods. Lots of small-time players using very effective methods would keep the authorities quite busy and they could also benefit through the shared innovation. Though I'm not sure if I want to see the GPL enforced through hitmen and car bombings.

We already have diverse legal regimes. Africa? China? Russia?

USA?

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