mar1juana: Milton Friedman and 500 Economists Call for Debate on Prohibition

mar1juana: Milton Friedman and 500 Economists Call for Debate on Prohibition as New Study Suggests Regulation Could Save Billions
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/389/friedman.shtml

Using the Wednesday release of a study suggesting that replacing mar1juana prohibition with a tax and regulate policy would save billions of dollars as a peg, more than 500 economists led by free market apostle Milton Friedman are calling for a national debate on moving toward regulated mar1juana markets. The call comes in an open letter to President Bush, Congress, and state governors and legislators.

In his study, "The Budgetary Implications of mar1juana Prohibition," Dr. Jeffrey Miron, a Boston University economics professor and visiting professor at Harvard University, looked at the financial costs associated with mar1juana prohibition as well as the revenue implications of a regulated mar1juana market. Using state and federal sources, Miron concluded that legalizing mar1juana would save approximately $7.7 billion a year in enforcement costs, with savings of $2.4 billion at the federal law and $5.3 billion among the states and localities.

But wait, there's more: According to Miron, whose research was largely underwritten by the mar1juana Policy Project, a tax and regulate system would not only save billions in policing costs, it would also generate as much as $6 billion annually in taxes. If mar1juana were taxed like ordinary consumer goods, revenues would range around $2.4 billion a year, but if it were taxed like alcohol and tobacco, that number could rise to as much as $6.2 billion, Miron concluded. That is a net savings of almost $14 billion a year.

In their open letter, the economists called attention to Miron's work and conclusions and urged a national debate on legalization. "The fact that mar1juana prohibition has these budgetary impacts does not by itself mean prohibition is bad policy," the economists wrote. "Existing evidence, however, suggests prohibition has minimal benefits and may itself cause substantial harm. We therefore urge the country to commence an open and honest debate about mar1juana prohibition. We believe such a debate will favor a regime in which mar1juana is legal but taxed and regulated like other goods. At a minimum, this debate will force advocates of current policy to show that prohibition has benefits sufficient to justify the cost to taxpayers, foregone tax revenues, and numerous ancillary consequences that result from mar1juana prohibition."

Five hundred economists -- even including some of the well-known ones who signed the open letter -- are one thing; having Milton Friedman sign on is another. The Nobel Prize-winning economist is one of the intellectual heroes of the contemporary conservative movement, but his anti-prohibitionist views are less well known. But he spoke out Wednesday, and in an interview with Forbes magazine was on point. "There is no logical basis for the prohibition of mar1juana," the economist said. "$7.7 billion is a lot of money, but that is one of the lesser evils. Our failure to successfully enforce [drug] 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 mar1juana for medical purposes."

Friedman was ready to go further than just mar1juana legalization. "I've long been in favor of legalizing all drugs," he told Forbes, but not because of standard libertarian arguments. "Look at the factual consequences: The harm done and the corruption created by these laws... the costs are one of the lesser evils."

Forbes called getting Friedman to sign on and speak out "a coup" for the mar1juana Policy Project, and MPP executive director Rob Kampia was ready to make the most of it. "As Milton Friedman and over 500 economists have now said, it's time for a serious debate about whether mar1juana prohibition makes any sense," he said in a press release trumpeting the study and the open letter. "We know that prohibition hasn't kept mar1juana away from kids, since year after year 85% of high school seniors tell government survey-takers that mar1juana is 'easy to get.' Conservatives, especially, are beginning to ask whether we're getting our money's worth or simply throwing away billions of tax dollars that might be used to protect America from real threats."