Milton Friedman on Drugs and prohibition
Marijuana 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?”
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. 66. https://miltonfriedman.org/quotes/marijuana-heavy-bulky-easy-interdict-driven-heroin-cocaine-crack-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
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.
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. 69Checked against the sourceFind the bookOf 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 bookNow suppose you legalized. Under current circumstances, a mother who is a crack addict and is carrying a baby is afraid to go get prenatal treatment because she turned herself into a criminal, she’s subject to being thrown into jail. Under legalized drugs, that inhibition would be off. And, you know, even crack addicts, mothers, have a feeling of responsibility to their children. And I have no doubt that under those circumstances, it would be possible to have a much more effective system of prenatal care, a much more effective system of trying to persuade people who are on drugs not to have children or to go off drugs while they have children.
Context. From a television interview about the war on drugs. Friedman has just said that what bothers him most about crack is the “crack babies”, innocent victims who tend to be born underweight or mentally impaired, adding that alcohol harms more babies this 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. 67Checked against the sourceFind the book
Think this quote is wrong, misattributed, or missing context? Report it and it gets fixed, not argued with.