Columbus

You have to love Columbus.  And by Columbus, I’m not talking about Genoa’s favorite son – the guy who got credit for ‘discovering’ a land that was already inhabited by millions of indigenous people.  I’m talking about the Columbus Market – one of the largest flea markets on the East Coast.

I went there this weekend with my family – it’s a fun way to spend a Sunny Sunday morning.  If they don’t have what you want at one of their indoor or outdoor vendors, chances are you don’t need it.

Columbus Market’s most infamous offerings has to be  counterfeited  merchandise.  Whether you’re looking for that fake Louis Vuitton bag, that faux-Rolex watch, or that fake designer Polo shirt, Columbus  has one of the widest selections this side of Macao.   Knock off goods are so prevalent there that the market is often featured in National News stories about crack downs on illicit merchandise.  These crack downs are very effective – after each major effort by law enforcement, Columbus Vendors start keeping all of their trademark-infringing goods under their tables instead of on top of them.  The bargain-hunting buyer then has to ask for them instead of just browsing the table-top selection.  Alas, in spite of Law Enforcement efforts, the wheels of commerce continue to turn.

I had to laugh this morning while watching BBC America news.  It seems that Interpol, the famous international  police force has started a new crackdown on the latest product that is appearing on the black market – prescription drugs.  According to the report, as much as 10% of all prescription drugs worldwide are fakes – and that’s a problem.  Very often, these drugs do not work in the same way as the name-brand formulations that they are aping.   According to the report, hundreds of thousands of deaths worldwide can be traced to counterfeited prescription drugs.  However, I am not 100% convinced that this is really all that worrisome.  After all, statistically speaking, I think that this is in line with the number of deaths world-wide that are annually attributed to bonafide prescriptives.    Plus, I’m sure that some people might actually be better off taking the fake stuff.  We all have heard of the placebo effect, so these phony pills are probably helping some people.  In addition, these fake formulations probably don’t have all the nasty, life-threatening side effects that the real McCoys have.   That totally bogus drug won’t cause cerebral hemorrhaging, suicidal thoughts, or kidney cancer like the real stuff does.  So, when you look at it from a ‘bang-for the buck’ perspective, these fake pharmas  start to look like a real bargain.

From another perspective, consider the folks who have no choice but to purchase the fake stuff.  I am sure that the people forking over $50 for a very convincing Louis Vuitton satchel at Columbus would never be inclined to lay out $895 for the real thing.     The same logic can be applied to the fake pharmaceuticals.  So what’s the harm?  Besides, some of these fakes are of extremely good quality – maybe not as good as the genuine article, but certainly good enough.  And the savvy consumer will always come out on top.  If that purse falls apart after a few weeks wear, you can bet that they’ll never buy from that vendor again.  Since many of these vendors have been selling at Columbus for many, many years, I am convinced that the quality of a lot of these fakes is actually quite good.

You also have to consider what type of fake drugs are being sold.   I am fairly sure that no one is peddling phony cancer meds.  Much more likely, the fakes being sold are falling into the recreational category.  This means one of two classes – ‘feel good’ meds like prescription pain killers or boner pills.  In either event, the sought effect is readily apparent to the end user, and if the drugs don’t work as expected, the person selling the fakes won’t be in business for very long.

So with little relative harm to the end user. Why the big push to stop the sale of these knock-off pills.  Well, it turns out, Interpol’s crackdown id being funded in part by a coalition of more than two dozen of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies, who have pledged  piddling 1.5 million Euros a year over the next three years to fund Interpol's newly created Pharmaceutical Crime Program.  When you compare this to the several billions in sales lost annually to the fake drug sales that the Pharmaceutical companies are claiming, this is a great no-brainer investment for Big Pharm.

Of course, there is a much easier solution – just make the damn drugs affordable in the first place.

Any vendor at Columbus will tell you, there is no way that you’re going to sell a knock-off purse for $50 when the real one retails for $85.  It’s really a matter of Economics 101.

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