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.
Ah yes, the Soros angle . . . the dreaded second punch of the Drug Warrior faux conservative's argument against the re-legalization of marijuana. The first punch is the "would you want your child's school bus driver to be stoned?" argument.
Why?
Governor Schwarzenegger (R) Signs Bill That Bans .50 caliber Rifles.
He is most pleased.
I think we need to legalize pot as a national-security imperatiave. Drug laws create smuggling channels which can then be used for more nefarious purposes.
In real time... are you really that paranoid to make such an assertion? ? I've always seen the pros and cons to pot legalization. I was just giving you the facts about that last init on pot that lost. Sheeezz.
Let's see... big issues affecting California. Well. Illegal Aliens and Major gang movement in CA. And that "R" signs a bill banning .50 caliber rifles. Yep. That makes him an enemy of single-lobers, everywhere... You got a point there.
I hear you---I'm just a scarred and grisled veteran of the FR WoD Wars.
The reason we have the alleged "war on drugs" is that the criminal injustice industry needs a steady flow of "inventory." It's nothing but welfare for the leeches in blue uniforms, blue suits, and black robes.
And other wars, no doubts..
Exactly. Over the years when this topic comes up with my apolitical friends they want the government involved in growing it and I'm think -- huh!?!
That's precisely what we DON'T want in any facet of life. Let the free market take over. I've jokingly said (on FR) that I had friends in high school who probably had little if anything to offer society in the way of a skill or trade. But, they knew how to grow pot and make a good "living" at it. Think of all the small busniess' that could spring up from people (like those I'm referring to) to meet a demand.
I can see it now -- a chain of stores "Pot Luck". :)
Far from an obsession. It's a small point in a great body of work.
So much we could use his wisdom on much more important.
And freedom IS the most important thing. It's not a means unto an end, it IS the end.
Having them all stoned may be a win/win. I have never seen someone stoned be able to shoot a gun, much less hit anything. In the 80's, may still be true today, pot was thought to be the number one cash crop in California. All untaxed.
You should be so crazy.
Not sure what you mean by the term "single-lobers", but anyone who betrays his oath to the Constitution is my sworn enemy.
I don't care if it's an R or D.
Just an idle question: When "Pot Luck" stores spring up all over the land.. can they be sued for "false advertising" of its wares?
that's quite the screenname you have there, combining romance and nipples. LOL
Thanks for sharing that. Very heartening to know.
We need to leave people the hell alone. That would free up government to do it's only legitimate job, defend the rights of the people.
I am all for legalizing pot as the prohibition has been too costly and I don't believe the government should control such items. Instead, we should allow public pressure to control its use. For instance, I am all for Colorado's law that prohibits employers from firing someone for activities outside of the workplace, but the law needs to be clear that a person can be fired for drug use. Drug use affects workplace performance and performance should always be a firing offense, but the law seems to also indicate that drug use affecting workplace perofrmance isn't a legitimate offense. Try firing someone with a pot problem and they scream discrimination.
I can see people growing their own. Lots of people, growing it and smoking it and giving it away. I predict it will have very little monetary value. It's value right now would be practically nil if it wasn't illegal.
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