Milton Friedman, great friend of libertarian ideals, has passed away today. He was 94.
He is best known for his 1976 Nobel Prize for economics. He was also against the current "war on drugs". In his 1990 Open Letter to Bill Bennett he discussed the disaster that the war on drugs would bring.
You are not mistaken in believing that drugs are a scourge that is devastating our society. You are not mistaken in believing that drugs are tearing asunder our social fabric, ruining the lives of many young people, and imposing heavy costs on some of the most disadvantaged among us. You are not mistaken in believing that the majority of the public share your concerns. In short, you are not mistaken in the end you seek to achieve.Your mistake is failing to recognize that the very measures you favor are a major source of the evils you deplore. Of course the problem is demand, but it is not only demand, it is demand that must operate through repressed and illegal channels. Illegality creates obscene profits that finance the murderous tactics of the drug lords; illegality leads to the corruption of law enforcement officials; illegality monopolizes the efforts of honest law forces so that they are starved for resources to fight the simpler crimes of robbery, theft and assault.
That was definately true in the Prohibition of the 1920s, an era which brought about a rise of mafioso rule and gangland violence.
And it is true today.
Posted by psugrad98 at November 16, 2006 04:33 PM | TrackBack
