Mark Thornton returns to the show to discuss his latest articles for the Mises Institute “The Real Cause of America’s Opioid Epidemic” and “Big Pharma Makes Drugs that Please Regulators, Not Customers.” Thornton makes the case for why legalizing heroin—and all drugs—would be a major step towards solving the opioid crisis. Instead, because of FDA regulations, doctors and pharmaceutical companies are not held liable for the awful consequences of their use. According to Thornton, and counter to popular opinion, lack of government regulations is what will actually regulate the quality of the product on the market.

Mark Thornton is a senior fellow at the Mises Institute. He serves as the Book Review Editor of the Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics. His publications include The Economics of Prohibition (1991), Tariffs, Blockades, and Inflation: The Economics of the Civil War (2004), The Quotable Mises (2005), The Bastiat Collection (2007), An Essay on Economic Theory (2010), and The Bastiat Reader (2014).

Discussed on the show:

• Ludwig Von Mises Institute 
• Chicago School
• “In one year, drug overdoses killed more Americans than the entire Vietnam War did” (Vox)
• Fentanyl
• “Authorities seize enough fentanyl for ‘1 million overdoses'” (CBS News)
• “Trump to declare national emergency on opioids months after initial promise” (CNN)
• “Tylenol made a hero of Johnson & Johnson : The recall that started them all” (New York Times)

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