I sort of assumed that if something is illegal to buy or sell the goverment would deem it to have no value within their economy
In: Economics
It’s of value to buyers and sellers, even if the activity is illegal. The government just needs to find out how much people are paying for a particular substance and can then evaluate how much it was worth. The government can find this out either by posing as buyers/sellers or by asking people who were caught with the substance. Not everyone will talk, but some will.
Those values are usually calculated for a press release about how big the bust was, so they’ll use the highest street price they can find to make it seem as big as possible. Nobody takes the exact amount that seriously, and neither should you.
Now, if the government confiscated your car, the valuation might matter more, because you’re later exonerated, you could potentially sue for the value of the car (assuming there’s some reason they can’t just give it back). However, for that to matter to illegal goods, you’d have to claim they belonged to you in the first place, which would not be a great idea.
It’s usually determined by “street value,” as in how much money you’d need to buy an equivalent amount from a dealer.
Obviously it’s all illegal and the people involved try to keep it down, but junkies still need their fix so the law of supply and demand applies.
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