Do patents really foster innovation? RE: Mild psychoactive drugs

From: Emlyn O'regan (oregan.emlyn@healthsolve.com.au)
Date: Thu Mar 06 2003 - 19:31:27 MST

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    > Basically every psychedelic drug that has become even slightly popular
    > in the last 30 years was discovered by Shulgin, who used himself and
    > his friends as guinea pigs. He did this out of personal enthusiasm.
    > There's no market incentive in the black market to discover new drugs.
    > As a matter of custom, those who develop new psychedelic drugs release
    > their chemical structures and synthesis steps into the public domain.
    > Even if they didn't, there would be no effective way to protect a
    > patent on an illegal substance.
    >
    > mez

    This could be taken as strong evidence in support of intellectual property
    regulation, in its role as a protector/encourager of innovation. What is
    shown is that, in the absense of any mechanism to protect IP in the area of
    illegal drugs, real innovation is very low.

    Comments?

    Emlyn

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