I came away from reading economist Steven D. Levitt’s recent book, Freakonomics, with a Republican’s disdain for the (illegal) drug industry. The crack boom helped knock blacks a few decades backward in catching up to white America’s socioeconomic status, fuel a crime wave that lasted until the early 1990s, and basically screw up society in general. But, now I’m starting to think that just as the “crime wave” peak of the 80s was followed by a just-as-large trough, we could be seeing the waning popularity of drugs in the coming years. (more…)