Milton Friedman on Drugs and prohibition
So far as drugs itself is concerned, some years ago, Alaska legalized marijuana. Consumption of marijuana among high school students in Alaska went down. The Dutch, in Holland, do not prosecute soft drugs, like marijuana, and they would prefer not to prosecute hard drugs, but they feel impelled by the international obligations they’ve entered into, and consumption of marijuana by young people has gone down. And, equally more interesting, the average age of the users of hard drugs has gone up, which means they’re not getting any more new recruits.
Context. From a television interview about the war on drugs. The interviewer has said that some argue alcohol consumption increased dramatically when Prohibition ended. Friedman has answered that it did not, and turns here to the evidence on drugs; he goes on to call that evidence “very mixed” and to grant that legalizing drugs might bring some additional addicts.
Where this comes from
Checked against the sourceThe wording was checked against the work itself.
Cite this passage
Milton Friedman, “America’s Drug Forum interview” (1991), With Randy Paige, taped at the International Conference on Drug Policy Reform, Washington, November 1991; reprinted as Ch. 8 “On Liberty and Drugs” in Friedman & Szasz on Liberty and Drugs, ed. Arnold S. Trebach and Kevin B. Zeese (Drug Policy Foundation Press, 1992), p. 69. https://miltonfriedman.org/quotes/alaska-legalized-marijuana-holland-consumption-went-down-1991
Quoted for commentary and research. Rights in the underlying work remain with its rights holder, so cite the work itself, not only this page.
Topics
He also said
Of course, they’re entrepreneurs. The people who are running the drug traffic are no different from the rest of us, except that they have more entrepreneurial ability and less concern about not hurting other people. They’re more irresponsible in that way. But they’re in a business and they’re trying to make as much as they can. And they discovered a good way to make money was to dilute this crack with baking soda or whatever else—I mean, cocaine, whatever else they do—I don’t know the procedure—so that they could bring it out in five dollar and ten dollar doses.
Context. From a television interview about the war on drugs. Friedman has said that crack would never have existed without drug prohibition: snorting cocaine became very expensive, and they were desperate to find a way of packaging it. The interviewer has put in, “The entrepreneurs.”
America’s Drug Forum interviewInterview, 1991, With Randy Paige, taped at the International Conference on Drug Policy Reform, Washington, November 1991; reprinted as Ch. 8 “On Liberty and Drugs” in Friedman & Szasz on Liberty and Drugs, ed. Arnold S. Trebach and Kevin B. Zeese (Drug Policy Foundation Press, 1992), p. 66Checked against the sourceFind the bookMarijuana is a very heavy, bulky substance and, therefore, it’s relatively easy to interdict. The warriors on drugs have been more successful interdicting marijuana than, let’s say, cocaine. So, marijuana prices have gone up, they’ve become harder to get. There’s been an incentive to grow more potent marijuana and people have been driven from marijuana to heroin, or cocaine, or crack.
Context. From a television interview about the war on drugs. Friedman has said that the effect of making drugs criminal is to drive people from mild drugs to strong drugs; the interviewer has asked, “In what way?”
America’s Drug Forum interviewInterview, 1991, With Randy Paige, taped at the International Conference on Drug Policy Reform, Washington, November 1991; reprinted as Ch. 8 “On Liberty and Drugs” in Friedman & Szasz on Liberty and Drugs, ed. Arnold S. Trebach and Kevin B. Zeese (Drug Policy Foundation Press, 1992), p. 66Checked against the sourceFind the bookLegalizing drugs would simultaneously reduce the amount of crime and improve law enforcement. It is hard to conceive of any other single measure that would accomplish so much to promote law and order.
Context. From Tyranny of the Status Quo (1984), written with Rose D. Friedman, in the chapter on crime, after arguing that marijuana prohibition repeats the pattern of alcohol Prohibition: growers post armed guards and gun battles follow, law enforcement personnel in some areas wink at the growers, and the government sprays the poison paraquat on marijuana fields. The authors conclude that prohibiting drugs does more harm, to users and to everyone else, than the drugs themselves.
Tyranny of the Status QuoBook, 1984, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Ch. 7 “Crime”, pp. 140–141 (with Rose D. Friedman)Checked against the sourceFind the book
Think this quote is wrong, misattributed, or missing context? Report it and it gets fixed, not argued with.