Overdose Offsets: Why Every Bag of Fentanyl I Sell Is Net Life-Positive
A former quantitative trader describes their current work selling fentanyl as a form of 'effective altruism,' arguing that their donations to charity outweigh the statistical risk of death for their customers. The piece uses utilitarian logic to justify illegal drug distribution by comparing the cost of saving lives in developing nations to the mortality rate of local drug sales.
Why it matters
It highlights the extreme, controversial application of utilitarian ethics and the 'earning to give' philosophy within the effective altruism movement.
I sell fentanyl six days a week under the El at Kensington and Somerset, and every bag I sell is net life-positive. Each bag carries a small but real chance of killing whoever buys it. Each bag also sends $1.80 to the Against Malaria Foundation, which GiveWell estimates saves a child’s life for about $5,500. My customers die at a rate of roughly one per 4,000 bags. Four thousand bags at $1.80 buys nets for 1.3 children. Every death on my corner is offset, with a third of a toddler left over, and I’d like that number in the conversation the next time somebody calls me a murderer out the window of a passing Kia.
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