RIP: Milton Friedman
From MPP,
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NOVEMBER 16, 2006
Marijuana Reform Loses Staunch Ally: Milton Friedman
CONTACT: Bruce Mirken, MPP director of communications, 415-668-6403
or 202-215-4205
Dan Bernath, MPP assistant director of
communications, 202-462-5747 ex. 115
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- With the death of Nobel Prize-winning economist
Milton Friedman, America has lost one of its strongest voices for
sane, sensible marijuana policies, officials of the Marijuana Policy
Project (MPP) in Washington, D.C., said today.
"Dr. Friedman was a lifetime dues-paying member of MPP and a
strong advocate for ending marijuana prohibition," Rob Kampia, MPP
executive director, said. "He understood that the government's war on
marijuana users is an assault on basic conservative values of freedom
and small government. We will miss him greatly."
Friedman was one of 500 economists to endorse the landmark
MPP-commissioned report by Harvard's Jeffrey R. Miron, "The Budgetary
Implications of Marijuana Prohibition," which estimated ending
prohibition would save taxpayers $7.7 billion a year while generating
$6.2 billion in tax revenue, and to call for a system in which
marijuana is regulated and taxed similarly to alcoholic beverages.
Miron's report and the letter signed by Dr. Friedman are available at
www.prohibitioncosts.org.
"There is no logical basis for the prohibition of marijuana,"
Friedman said, referring to the study. "Our failure to successfully
enforce these 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 marijuana for medical
purposes."
Before his death, Friedman taped video footage for MPP in which
he discussed drug policy reform and the need for a different approach
to marijuana. MPP is now working to make this footage available. For
details, contact Dan Bernath, MPP assistant director of
communications, at 202-462-5747 ex. 115 or dbernath@mpp.org.
With more than 21,000 members and 100,000 e-mail subscribers
nationwide, the Marijuana Policy Project is the largest marijuana
policy reform organization in the United States. MPP works to
minimize the harm associated with marijuana-both the consumption of
marijuana and the laws that are intended to prohibit such use. MPP
believes that the greatest harm associated with marijuana is
imprisonment. For more information, see www.MarijuanaPolicy.org.
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