The legacy market (aka “the black market”), where the free market still exists (ironically, by being made illegal, and all the “regulated substances” / “controlled substances” in it are bought and sold completely without regulation or control), shows the way.

… So maybe if we make fruit, veg, bread, butter and meat, illegal, we’ll see the prices drop, and the quality improve.

Retail cocaine

So this correlates with rise of compradores in which Andean countries? I don’t know the dates offhand, but it seems likely to be related.