cannabisnews.com: Drug War Lows: Milton Friedmans 30-Year-Old Advice Drug War Lows: Milton Friedmans 30-Year-Old Advice Posted by CN Staff on July 06, 2002 at 08:55:20 PT Editorial Source: News Journal Online The great economist and Nobel laureate Milton Friedman turns 90 on July 31. President Bush, who invited him to the White House for a public toast and a private lunch to celebrate the occasion a few weeks ago, had some very nice things to say about him, for good reason. Friedman, the president said, "has used a brilliant mind to advance a moral vision: the vision of a society where men and women are free, free to choose, but where government is not as free to override their decisions.... He has shown us that when government attempts to substitute its own judgments for the judgments of free people, the results are usually disastrous." The president did not mention the best example of such a disaster: The so-called war on drugs, which Bush very much supports and Friedman has been opposing since the day it was declared by President Nixon in 1972. Writing in Newsweek in May 1972, Friedman took on "Prohibition and Drugs" in these terms: "On ethical grounds, do we have the right to use the machinery of government to prevent an individual from becoming an alcoholic or a drug addict? For children, almost everyone would answer at least a qualified yes. But for responsible adults, I, for one, would answer no. Reason with the potential addict, yes. Tell him the consequences, yes. Pray for and with him, yes. But I believe that we have no right to use force, directly or indirectly, to prevent a fellow man from committing suicide, let alone from drinking alcohol or taking drugs." It is a view consistent with the notion of individual freedom as being guided by one's own judgment rather than government's: Individuals will do unto themselves what they will, correcting their mistakes the same way that the "invisible hand" of the free market corrects its own. It so happens that Friedman believes that invisible hand to be infallible a considerable flaw in Friedman's concept of freedom, especially when it is applied to individual choice. Anything human is fallible, free markets included. But it is still better to fail by one's own hand (to be a drug addict, for example) than to be a victim of government's failure as it attempts to judge the good and bad of individual behavior (by putting drug addicts in prison). Just as government should temper the excesses of the free market by regulating it lightly, it should balance personal freedoms with the values and interests of society at large, which ideally complement rather than contradict those freedoms. The drug war has been a complete failure along those lines, punishing individuals, wrecking individual rights, turning Americans against Americans and inner cities into war zones, jamming prisons to levels unparalleled anywhere in the world, corrupting police agencies, costing more to fight (in 2002, anyway) than the $1 billion-a-month Afghan war, and to date yielding not even a hope for victory. An end in itself, it is a perpetual war written into the nation's budget, its social fabric and its election cycles. Friedman declared the war indefensible on moral grounds. President Bush, citing many free market successes tailored after the economist's ideas around the world, including China and Russia, noted how "the rest of the world is finally catching up with Milton Friedman." But Friedman's economic disciples at home have yet to catch up to him regarding one of the most damaging campaigns against Americans and individual rights in the nation's history. Source: News Journal Online (FL)Published: Saturday, July 06, 2002 Copyright: 2002 News-Journal Corporation Website: http://www.news-journalonline.com/Contact: http://www.news-journalonline.com/opinion.htm#lettersRelated Articles & Web Site:Milton & Rose D. Friedman Foundationhttp://www.friedmanfoundation.org/A Quagmire for Our Timehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10426.shtmlA Cure Worse Than Its Diseasehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread9764.shtmlConsider Arguments For Legalizing Regulating Drugs http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread9753.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #2 posted by Letsgetfree on July 06, 2002 at 18:38:52 PT How the fuck.... fuck...can King Shrub the II say such utter B.S.Friedman, the president said, "has used a brilliant mind to advance a moral vision: the vision of a society where men and women are free, free to choose, but where government is not as free to override their decisions.... He has shown us that when government attempts to substitute its own judgments for the judgments of free people, the results are usually disastrous." WHAT THE FUCKI'm really starting to think this whole world is on a one way passage down shit creek. In Toronto today the air was brown from a fire that's going in Quebec. It was hard to breath and it hurt my eyes. My lungs feel like shit right now. It just showed me how much we could be effected by the enviroment, and how much we all are affected by the actions of man. In Toronto we also have a municipal strike, which means no garbage pick up and lots of garbage on the streets. It's pretty gross, but the only thing that I can think of is how much shit we use here in the "Western World". Ok so there's garbage on the streets, but if there was no strike the trash would still be going somewhere. We are now faced with the shit we do to the earth. But no one wants to see this. People want to believe they can drive there SUVs without any consequence, or believe that they can eat meat 3 times a day, or just live the Western lifestyle. We consume so much more then the rest of the world, and have such a disproportionate impact on the enviroment. But were still the "good guys", and the others that don't like us, there the evil ones. I hate living in this materialistic society, and every day i feel trapped in it. And I'm only 20.Gawd I need to get out of the city! [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by Gary Storck on July 06, 2002 at 09:06:56 PT Nice to see this point get made When Bush had Friedman at the White House, I immediately caught the hypocrisy in praising the man but ignoring what he said, and pointed out that in a letter to the editor I sent to a number of papers, noting that Friedman would probably find it a higher compliment if Bush took his advice instead of just showering him with praise.Newsday called and said they would publish it, then didn't, and the other papers didn't either.I'm glad to see someone else made the same connection and put it in print.Gary Is My Medicine Legal YET? [ Post Comment ] Post Comment