As seen in Section 4, drug prohibitions and similar regulations naturally generate conflicts between the values of private citizens and the requirements of the law, reflected most obviously in flourishing black markets (p. 4.11:65). Black markets for addictive drugs offer unique opportunities to those dealers who are most skilled at circumventing the authorities to carve out monopoly territories, in effect using the narcotics authorities to help suppress competitors. Since these druglords operate in a more or less clandestine underworld, they can readily resort to violence to strengthen their monopoly status. This status enables such dealers to reap profits far in excess of those that would be available in a legal competitive environment. Although drug-related violence is primarily directed by the druglords and their lackeys against one another, innocent bystanders are also victimized. Violence may also be associated with all of the other black markets created by growing regulation and ever more restrictive prohibitions.

Black-market monopolists have an exceptionally strong monetary incentive to seek to multiply their profits by luring new buyers into their markets. This opportunity is far more attractive than in legal free markets, because of both the monopoly status of these sellers and the covert nature of their markets. The high profit margin realized by black-market druglords, for instance, gives them an enormous incentive to seek to increase the population of addicts within their monopoly territories. These special marketing opportunities further increase the impetus toward growing drug addiction.