Posted on 06/02/2005 4:40:30 AM PDT by Wolfie
Milton Friedman: Legalize It!
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - A founding father of the Reagan Revolution has put his John Hancock on a pro-pot report.
Milton Friedman leads a list of more than 500 economists from around the U.S. who today will publicly endorse a Harvard University economist's report on the costs of marijuana prohibition and the potential revenue gains from the U.S. government instead legalizing it and taxing its sale. Ending prohibition enforcement would save $7.7 billion in combined state and federal spending, the report says, while taxation would yield up to $6.2 billion a year.
The report, "The Budgetary Implications of Marijuana Prohibition," ( available at www.prohibitioncosts.org ) was written by Jeffrey A. Miron, a professor at Harvard , and largely paid for by the Marijuana Policy Project ( MPP ), a Washington, D.C., group advocating the review and liberalization of marijuana laws.
At times the report uses some debatable assumptions: For instance, Miron assumes a single figure for every type of arrest, for example, but the average pot bust is likely cheaper than bringing in a murder or kidnapping suspect. Friedman and other economists, however, say the overall work is some of the best yet done on the costs of the war on marijuana.
At 92, Friedman is revered as one of the great champions of free-market capitalism during the years of U.S. rivalry with Communism. He is also passionate about the need to legalize marijuana, among other drugs, for both financial and moral reasons.
"There is no logical basis for the prohibition of marijuana," the economist says, "$7.7 billion is a lot of money, but that is one of the lesser evils. Our failure to successfully enforce these laws is responsible for the deaths of thousands of people in Colombia. I haven't even included the harm to young people. It's absolutely disgraceful to think of picking up a 22-year-old for smoking pot. More disgraceful is the denial of marijuana for medical purposes."
Securing the signatures of Friedman, along with economists from Cornell, Stanford and Yale universities, among others, is a coup for the MPP, a group largely interested in widening and publicizing debate over the usefulness of laws against pot.
If the laws change, large beneficiaries might include large agricultural groups like Archer Daniels Midland and ConAgra Foods as potential growers or distributors and liquor businesses like Constellation Brands and Allied Domecq, which understand the distribution of intoxicants. Surprisingly, Home Depot and other home gardening centers would not particularly benefit, according to the report, which projects that few people would grow their own marijuana, the same way few people distill whiskey at home. Canada's large-scale domestic marijuana growing industry ( see "Inside Dope" ) suggests otherwise, however.
The report will likely not sway all minds. The White House Office of Drug Control Policy recently published an analysis of marijuana incarceration that states that "most people in prison for marijuana are violent criminals, repeat offenders, traffickers or all of the above." The office declined to comment on the marijuana economics study, however, without first analyzing the study's methodology.
Friedman's advocacy on the issue is limited--the nonagenarian prefers to write these days on the need for school choice, calling U.S. literacy levels "absolutely criminal...only sustained because of the power of the teachers' unions." Yet his thinking on legalizing drugs extends well past any MPP debate or the kind of liberalization favored by most advocates.
"I've long been in favor of legalizing all drugs," he says, but not because of the standard libertarian arguments for unrestricted personal freedom. "Look at the factual consequences: The harm done and the corruption created by these laws...the costs are one of the lesser evils."
Not that a man of his years expects reason to triumph. Any added revenues from taxing legal marijuana would almost certainly be more than spent, by this or any other Congress.
"Deficits are the only thing that keeps this Congress from spending more" says Friedman. "Republicans are no different from Democrats. Spending is the easiest way to buy votes." A sober assessment indeed.
Should tell us something, and I can think of several things.
The fact that a law interferes in personal pleasure is not, in and of itself (id est per se), any reason at all to oppose that law.
A research project is different from making a decision to implement such a policy.
And ARSENIC based paint too~ Actually FUR SHUR.
I think you imagine that the world is full of levels of control and interlocking directorates such that no bad deed occurs except that it is officially approved.
Sorry, I've done stuff without permission myself ~ and gotten away with it too. Many other Freepers recall such events in their lives as well.
Why do you not recall such things?
The next time you read a comment perhaps you could take it in context and apply it to the isue at hand or you can continue to parse all the words here, then have at it.
Economics suggests that just about everyone making an argument in support of the WOD has a vested interest in continuing it.
How would that be different then it is today?
There is already THC less hemp growing and spreading pollen all around the nation. Does'nt seam to affect the growers. They just keep breeding stronger pot year after year.
So you were speaking of a rogue operation, rather than an approved policy? I'm sure we'd all like to hear more...
Sorry, I've done stuff without permission myself ~ and gotten away with it too. Many other Freepers recall such events in their lives as well. Why do you not recall such things?
I don't recall anyone here knocking out a multi-billion dollar industry and affecting the national economy. Can you provide a link?
Yes, peace and quiet and fewer junkies laying on the sidewalk out front of my house ~ a vested interest FUR SHUR.
My own theory is that with the advent of domestic sources, your memories of Mexican "$hit", called that for it's extraneous content, mislead you into thinking the domestic stuff is "stronger". Actually, it's just more concentrated due to the absence of filler~!
How many more multi-million dollar industries do I have to name?
Then there was the MINT INDUSTRY. It got wiped out totally a couple of decades ago with a blight. It destroyed 100% of all the mint cultivar. Clever plant breeders managed to breed a new type out of "spearmint", but it's not exactly the same as the old stuff.
MJ could go the same way.
"The harm done and the corruption created by these laws...the costs are one of the lesser evils."
There are families there that aren't on welfare and want the best for their kids. They work hard to try and improve their conditions. Think about how it would be to try and raise your kids in a situation like that. I don't see how legalization is going to help that situation.
This isn't bleeding heart stuff, I venture to say that none of us here would tolerate what a lot of people are struggling with every day. Do we owe them less that what we would expect in our neighborhoods?
Do Church outreach in those neighborhoods or do a drive along if your local PD allows it. It might be that all of a sudden drug use and prostitution doesn't look so victimless.
Obviously the current WoD isn't working and I don't have an answer, but is throwing up our hands, saying it's all okay and dooming a segment of our fellow American's a viable solution?
That assumes the WOD leads to fewer junkies lying around, an assumption not supported by the government's own numbers.
Something is working.
"According to the Straits Times [1995], Singapore is treating 7,700 addicts (up from 5,700 in 1990). Assuming improbably, that these are the only ones, Singapore still has an addiction rate 12% higher than the U.S."
--http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/50/098.html
[Malaysia]"The National Drug Agency (ADK) has, through its efforts, registered more than 300,000 addicts in its drug fight. However, just like the iceberg, the numbers are only what is seen above the surface. Some local studies have suggested there are an estimated three to four addicts who are not registered with the ADK for every one that is."
--thestar.com.my/health/story.asp?file=/2005/4/17/health/10678978&sec=health
"Iran has executed more than 10,000 narcotics traffickers in the last decade;"
--www.payvand.com/news/04/mar/1012.htm
"Iran has the highest proportion of heroin addicts in the world and a growing Aids problem."
--news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/this_world/3791889.stm
Legalize it and then let the trial lawyers sue the pot industry for the even greater rates of lung cancer that marijuana causes compared to cigarettes.
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