Milton Friedman sez: legalize marijuana

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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."

Can't wait to see what the right wonks say about *this* one. "Clearly he's a leftie!...um...yeah."

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 3 June 2005 19:58 (twenty years ago)

I dunno, Ned: the sorts of conservatives who are most enamored of economics tend to drift in these libertarian directions anyway.

― nabisco (nabisco), Friday, 3 June 2005 20:07 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, economics is a line of thought you have to rein in carefully, else you end up advocating everything.

Pot is illegal for stupid reasons, though. Hello, choir. Mind if I preach a while?

― kenan, Friday, 3 June 2005 20:09 (twenty years ago)

else you end up advocating everything.

I LOVE EVERYTHING!!!!

― teeny (teeny), Friday, 3 June 2005 20:12 (twenty years ago)

I dunno, Ned: the sorts of conservatives who are most enamored of economics tend to drift in these libertarian directions anyway.

Granted, but it's a rhetorical bit of fun that's still intriguing -- more GOP people seem more inclined to Friedman than, say, Rand.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 3 June 2005 20:25 (twenty years ago)

Are you using Friedman as a verb, Ned?

― M. White (Miguelito), Friday, 3 June 2005 20:26 (twenty years ago)

Our failure to successfully enforce these laws is responsible for the deaths of thousands of people in Colombia.

Uncle Milty grows a conscience, 30 years after Pinochet.

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Friday, 3 June 2005 20:28 (twenty years ago)

I'd say more GOP people are inclined to William F. Buckley as well. And he's supported legal weed for awhile, too.

― don weiner (don weiner), Friday, 3 June 2005 20:30 (twenty years ago)

Are you using Friedman as a verb, Ned?

I've heard weirder.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 3 June 2005 20:32 (twenty years ago)

seems like most of the folks against weed are just pretty clueless about it. after school specials to thread.
m.

― msp (mspa), Friday, 3 June 2005 20:35 (twenty years ago)

Right, Ned -- I'm just thinking about how the split plays on the ground, this line between academic thought and traditionalists. Your sort of solid, traditionalist conservatives have always been pretty good about waving off whatever progressive/reformist ideas their academic counterparts float, and I think that line runs across a whole lot of camps; there's some way in which people feel free to champion a person's main line of thought, and then write off minor bits of forward thinking by saying, you know, "eh, he's an academic, a 'thinker,' they always have some odd ideas." Whereas the kind of engaged, chattery conservatives we're likely to hear from -- at least the under-55 ones -- tend to be of a sort that's pretty open to the idea of conservatism as a place for "straight-talking" radical-reformist ideals: libertarian shit, drug reform, flat taxes, closed borders, etc.

― nabisco (nabisco), Friday, 3 June 2005 20:50 (twenty years ago)

more GOP people seem more inclined to Friedman than, say, Rand.
Are you using Friedman as a verb, Ned?

I've heard weirder.

DO THE FRIEDMAN!

― Ian Riese-Moraine's all but an ark-lark! (Eastern Mantra), Friday, 3 June 2005 20:55 (twenty years ago)

Our failure to successfully enforce these laws is responsible for the deaths of thousands of people in Colombia.

He seems to be talking about a lot more than marijuana here. I can't think of too many conservatives in favor of decriminalizing 'hard' drugs (at least not in America).

― Kal Dsajik, Friday, 3 June 2005 21:22 (twenty years ago)

Quote says "marijuana, among other drugs". Plenty of libertarian thinkers believe in legalizing all drugs. Conservative is an inaccurate term for people like Friedman, his economic beliefs have never been muddied with reactionary moral values. There are two Rights, in the States and Europe, a marriage of (in)convenience between Free Traders and Traditional Conservatives.

I think Progressive/Leftist political organisations need to overcome their kneejerk distrust of the Free Market.

― Jetlag Willy (noodle vague), Friday, 3 June 2005 22:13 (twenty years ago)

uncle milty (and bill buckley) have both been pro-legalization for a LONG time now. their positions haven't exactly been secret.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Friday, 3 June 2005 22:29 (twenty years ago)

ya deregulation is grate guys come on & get over yr childish prejudices!

― pinko swine, Friday, 3 June 2005 23:53 (twenty years ago)

Does NED RAGGETT smoke weed?

― Amon (eman), Saturday, 4 June 2005 00:30 (twenty years ago)

amon how do you know that thread? were you around then?

― cutty (mcutt), Saturday, 4 June 2005 00:40 (twenty years ago)

YOU ARE CURIOUS AS TO THE IDENTITY OF AMON WE SEE CUTTY.

― Ian John50n (orion), Saturday, 4 June 2005 00:41 (twenty years ago)

I don't see what was so godawful offensive about the Ned Raggett weed question that everyone went nuts. Seems like a fair enough question.

― kenan, Saturday, 4 June 2005 01:01 (twenty years ago)

Dan in knee jerk shocker!

― Community Cornerstone (deangulberry), Saturday, 4 June 2005 01:03 (twenty years ago)

I should note I thought it was a strange thread too.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 4 June 2005 01:08 (twenty years ago)

I mean, you *do* have weed-smokin' hair. Glorious, glorious hippie locks that any man should envy. Not that there needs to be a whole thread about it, but I don't see why it was angrily locked like someone started hurling racial epithets at you or something.

― kenan, Saturday, 4 June 2005 01:16 (twenty years ago)

You might want to read the context provided in Dan's posts a bit, folks. I don't remember the details but there *was* some schmuck posting insulting and abusive threads that weekend. I have full faith that Ian wasn't trying to pull anything but Dan, bless his heart, was obviously tired of the whole thing and wasn't thrilled to see this thread on top of it all. As for me, for all that I post here like there's no tomorrow, there are things I generally choose not to talk about on ILX, and being asked via a thread rather than directly about whether I smoked pot or not -- and like I said, I don't -- feels pretty weird.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 4 June 2005 01:19 (twenty years ago)

YOU ARE CURIOUS AS TO THE IDENTITY OF AMON WE SEE CUTTY.

why, yes, i even started a thread about it:

AMON/EMAN/MASSES

― cutty (mcutt), Saturday, 4 June 2005 01:26 (twenty years ago)

amon is bananas b-a-n-a-n-a-s

― caitlin oh no (caitxa1), Saturday, 4 June 2005 01:31 (twenty years ago)

oh my god a rubbber, rubbber, rubbber

― Amon (eman), Saturday, 4 June 2005 01:35 (twenty years ago)

― Ian John50n (orion), Saturday, 4 June 2005 01:55 (twenty years ago)

but Dan, bless his heart, was obviously tired of the whole thing and wasn't thrilled to see this thread on top of it all

That makes more sense. I mean, starting a thread about one person's drug habits is maybe not cool, but it's par for the rudeness course around here, ordinarily.

― kenan, Saturday, 4 June 2005 02:00 (twenty years ago)

By the way, on the rudeness course, I prefer to play the back nine.

― kenan, Saturday, 4 June 2005 02:01 (twenty years ago)

didn't mean to derail thread, sorry.

Go Friedman!

― Amon (eman), Saturday, 4 June 2005 04:38 (twenty years ago)

Let's Friedman! *shoop shoop*

― Ian Riese-Moraine's all but an ark-lark! (Eastern Mantra), Saturday, 4 June 2005 14:21 (twenty years ago)

http://www.gil.house.gov/images/012704PRI2.jpg

WHERE THOSE TITTIES AT?

― fauxhemian (fauxhemian), Saturday, 4 June 2005 18:07 (twenty years ago)

http://www.nndb.com/people/149/000023080/wfb.jpg

― fauxhemian (fauxhemian), Saturday, 4 June 2005 18:09 (twenty years ago)

http://aging.als.uiuc.edu/2002%2005%2018%208.GerardDurand%20Dancing%20with%20Dtr-In-Law,%20Cheryleen.jpg

― fauxhemian (fauxhemian), Saturday, 4 June 2005 18:20 (twenty years ago)

http://www.nato.int/sfor/misc/turks/dancing.jpg

― fauxhemian (fauxhemian), Saturday, 4 June 2005 18:22 (twenty years ago)

The prohibition on marijuana (and other drugs) has produced more and better gangsters than the Volstead Act. The root of the drug problem is that drugs exist. Laws can't change that, only manage it. The way we manage it today is idiotic, with at least 750,000 people in jail at an astronomical cost and no discernable benefit. How we manage cigarettes and booze is the model that works best.

― Aimless (Aimless), Saturday, 4 June 2005 18:31 (twenty years ago)

Is this new for him? I think he's been saying this kind of stuff all along. He's not Phillis Schafly after all. Of course, neither was Barry Goldwater, and the media did invent a "gone left in his dodderhood" angle when he talked about gay rights. These guys have always thought this way.

― Chris H. (chrisherbert), Sunday, 5 June 2005 05:11 (twenty years ago)

eight months pass...

Uncle Miltie sez we shouldn't have gone into Iraq.

― don-duh-don weiner (don weiner), Monday, 13 February 2006 03:19 (nineteen years ago)

I love the 'freedom of the 19th century' line if only because the subtext is 'damned unions!'

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 13 February 2006 03:32 (nineteen years ago)

yeah, well I think the subtext is quite a bit broader than that Ned. But a logical guess!

Pretty nimble for someone 93 anyway. I wonder what he thinks of Bruce Bartlett these days.

― don weiner (don weiner), Monday, 13 February 2006 03:37 (nineteen years ago)

Does NED RAGGETT smoke weed?

-- Amon (masses7...), June 3rd, 2005 9:30 PM. (eman)

― |l|l|l|l|l|l|l|l|l|l|l|l|l|l|l|l|l|l|l|l|l|l|l|l|l| (eman), Monday, 13 February 2006 04:30 (nineteen years ago)

weed rules.

― Special Agent Gene Krupa (orion), Monday, 13 February 2006 17:07 (nineteen years ago)

two years pass...

you *do* have weed-smokin' hair.

― Gavin "Spinner" Mason (carne asada), Thursday, 23 October 2008 18:08 (sixteen years ago)

do you think marijuana has the opposite of the intended effect on you, like it makes you into a "normal person"? like you get high and finally come to appreciate crappy, mind-numbing sitcoms like Friends or Home Improvement or some shit

― burt_stanton, Thursday, 23 October 2008 18:49 (sixteen years ago)

i get high and obtain much hard one.

― Gavin "Spinner" Mason (carne asada), Thursday, 23 October 2008 18:56 (sixteen years ago)

two months pass...

http://www.cnbc.com/id/28672671

i am only posting this link because i can't tell if this guy is kidding with shit like this:

It's time to legalize, or at least decriminalize, drugs. Admittedly this would be a blow to the flourishing prison industry at a time when we don't want to cause additional job losses.

― i like to fart and i am crazy (gbx), Friday, 16 January 2009 01:41 (sixteen years ago)

ie anyone that is in favor of the prison industry because like it creates jobs and shit is someone that should probably shot into space and destroyed by the sun

― i like to fart and i am crazy (gbx), Friday, 16 January 2009 01:42 (sixteen years ago)

you haven't encountered this argument before? i don't agree with it, but prisons are basically all that's left for jobs in a lot of parts of the industrial and smaller-town northeast.

― banned substance (gabbneb), Friday, 16 January 2009 01:57 (sixteen years ago)

i've encountered it as a reason for towns lobbying for prisons that would otherwise open somewhere else, but i've never heard it given as a reason NOT to close prisons. pretty unconscionable imo

― i like to fart and i am crazy (gbx), Friday, 16 January 2009 02:01 (sixteen years ago)

It might also create a lot of jobs in the LEGAL DRUGS INDUSTRY

― ichard Thompson (Hurting 2), Friday, 16 January 2009 02:11 (sixteen years ago)

two months pass...

http://www.theweek.com/article/index/94981/I_smoke_pot_and_I_like_it

― laying | (goole), Friday, 3 April 2009 21:40 (sixteen years ago)

one year passes...

http://www.baltimoresun.com/health/bs-md-montel-medical-marijuana-20110124,0,5287783.story

― am0n, Tuesday, 25 January 2011 20:00 (fourteen years ago)

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