Milton Friedman: Legalize It!

FORBES.COM WEEKLY NEWSLETTER , JUNE 06, 2005 ^ | 06.02.05, 12:01 AM ET | Quentin Hardy

[Redcloak]

This is your brain on looney libertarianism. Any questions?

This is your law enforcement resources being devoted to enforcing drug laws. Any questions?

[kingsurfer]

I thought open borders and lax immigration security was a good thing?

[SittinYonder]

I assume that you are a responsible adult who can handle freedom. My question to you is how do you deal with those who can't handle unbridled freedom and harm others? Prison?

When it comes to harming others, there are a whole host of local, state and federal laws under which people can be prosecuted. If someone breaks the law while on drugs then that person can be prosecuted for the laws they broke. We don't need a nanny state to protect us from ourselves.

My question to you is ... why do you get to decide how others "handle unbridled freedom"? What business is it of yours if I step out on my back porch on a Friday night and smoke a joint. For that matter, what business is it of yours if I live in my mother's basement and at 34 years old can't get anything better than a minimum wage job at McDonalds that I am regularly late for because in my off hours I spend all my minimum wages on dope.

Those who support the war on drugs are not truly interested in reducing the size and scope of the federal government.

Your statement: Self regulation and responsibility is a bitch to follow through with.

Show me where in the Constitution the federal government is given the authority to make people responsible.

[Che Chihuahua]

Well my FR friend, I really don't care what you do to yourself, where you live, where you work, or what you smoke. That is, I don't care nor is it my business, until you smack into my car, hurt innocent people without legal justification, steal to support your habit, or become a welfare/SSI slave costing the taxpayers money. Party on if you must, just be somewhat prudent before involving others in your freedom quest. It's been fun, but I'm done with this discussion.

[Che Chihuahua]

So you really think that diverting money from drug enforcement would have stopped 9/11? Interesting, because I used to laugh at liberals that argued that if we didn't waste money on the Space Program or Vietnam that we could end poverty with the money "saved" from these wasteful expenditures of public money. Well, I guess we still had poor people after the moon landing (the de facto end of the space program) and the end of the Vietnam war. The real cause of 9/11 was a do-nothing President who didn't care a whit about terrorism for the eight years his fat ass sat in the White House.

[Che Chihuahua]

I agree with your point about alcoholics, so why add another player to the milieu of substance abuse problems? As for racial misogyny being responsible for the passage of drug laws, that's food for thought. In my home state of Texas, hemp used to grow freely and many took advantage of it until they sprayed the plants with a deadly weedkiller in the mid 1960s. I have no problem with social toking or drinking. I just don't want to have drunks and stoners driving 1500+ pound cars.

[SittinYonder]

I really don't care what you do to yourself, where you live, where you work, or what you smoke

Then why do you want the government to care? My point is, the WOD is an over-reach on the part of the federal government. It is unconstitutional.

[Redcloak]

Yeah, I think that the $1.6 billion Federal dollars spent chasing dope smokers in 2001 would have been better spent chasing Mohammed Atta. 3000 Americans might be alive today if we had our priorities straight.

How would you rather see your tax dollars being spent? On dope growers? Or on weapons to kill terrorists?

[Ken H]

Rather than legalizing MJ, to save tax dollars, WHY NOT MAKE ILLEGAL ALIENS I-L-L-E-G-A-L and multiply that savings number by about TEN OR MORE. Sorry Mr. Friedman, you are looking in the wrong place to save tax dollars. Pick the LOW-HANGING FRUIT FIRST!

Why not have the government put time and resources into enforcing immigration laws, rather than State medical mj laws?

[EagleUSA]

Why not have the government put time and resources into enforcing immigration laws, rather than State medical mj laws?
------
Now don't get crazy on us - you are really proposing alot, especially with the Bush/Fox tryst going on....

[Che Chihuahua]

Because I had a family member killed by a driver under the influence of a controlled substance.

[Che Chihuahua]

Often times terrorists and dope growers and dealers are the same, e.g. the Kosovo Liberation Army, the Ayatollah Khomeni, or the Taliban. I can imagine the legalized slogans for terrorist dope. "Toke one for the Taliban!" "Kosovo Krack for a Kick!" "Snort Teheran Toot!"

[infocats]

Look, dopers think that what they do is invisible to the rest of us.

It's part of the general sense of megalomania that most narcotics import. What is surprising is that feeling continues on into their brief, intermittent, periods of lucidity where they find themselves in FR trying to post.

Talk about megalomania! What possibly makes you think that dopers care what you think...or more than likely, don't think about what they do in the privacy of their own homes.

[muawiyah]

'cause they're posting in here? Hmmmm?! Whacha' think?

[infocats]

I'm shocked by all the Freepers who cheer every time a cigarette tax is imposed or every time a city or state bans smoking but then will turn around in another thread and claim to be in favor of less government intervention.

What? Hypocrisy on FR? I'm shocked I tell you...shocked!

[infocats]

And druggies tend to vote Democrat.

I'm not sure about that at all. You would be surprised at how many professionals use hard drugs...and they certainly tend to vote Republican.

[infocats]

Good Gracious .... why did my post hit 12,000 times?????

This is your computer on CNS stimulants ;-)

[infocats]

'cause they're posting in here? Hmmmm?! Whacha' think?

Point taken!

[Redcloak]

That would be because our bone-headed Drug Warriors made narcotics illegal in the first place. You don't see distillers or tobacco companies entangled in terrorist organizations, do you? Drug prohibition opened the market up to criminal organizations; just as alcohol prohibition did 80 years ago. You do-gooders are the best thing that ever happened to the world's Capones and bin Ladens.

[muawiyah]

I just knew you'd agree.

Still, they think they're invisible.