Harvard economist: Prohibition creates violence, legalize all drugs
David Edwards and Stephen C. Webster
Published: Tuesday March 24, 2009

Because of his title as a Harvard economist, people tend to listen to Jeffrey Miron. And, if the old principle holds true and controversy always creates interest, expect a lot of people to be talking about Miron's latest volley into the mainstream media.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/03/24/miron.legalization.drugs/index.html

"Prohibition creates violence because it drives the drug market underground," he wrote in an essay published by CNN on Tuesday. "This means buyers and sellers cannot resolve their disputes with lawsuits, arbitration or advertising, so they resort to violence instead.

"Violence was common in the alcohol industry when it was banned during Prohibition, but not before or after."

Miron's proposed solution to ending the cartel war along the US-Mexico border is both simple and enormously complex.

"Violence is the norm in illicit gambling markets but not in legal ones. Violence is routine when prostitution is banned but not when it's permitted," he wrote. "Violence results from policies that create black markets, not from the characteristics of the good or activity in question.

"The only way to reduce violence, therefore, is to legalize drugs."

In 2005, Miron published a study titled, "The Budgetary Implications of Marijuana Prohibition" (PDF link), funded by the Marijuana Policy Project. Over 500 professional economists, including Milton Friedman, signed on to the report, which was sent to then-President George W. Bush.

Miron's report found that "marijuana legalization would save $7.7 billion per year in state and federal expenditures on prohibition enforcement and produce tax revenues of at least $2.4 billion annually if marijuana were taxed like most consumer goods."

He also discovered a potential for $6.2 billion or more, were marijuana taxed similarly to alcohol and tobacco.

However, during a CNN appearance on Tuesday, he took the anti-prohibition sentiment of his prior study on marijuana and applied it universally, telling anchor Kiran Chetry, "A lot of the violence we're seeing and a lot of the underground market is not related to marijuana but related to the other drugs.

"If we only did marijuana we would only have a small impact on the violence and corruption and disruption of other countries that is caused by U.S. prohibition of drugs and the U.S. forcing prohibition of drugs on other countries."

This video is from CNN's American Morning, broadcast Mar. 24, 2009.



http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Harvard_economist_Legalize_all_drugs_to_0324.html

The problem with blanket decriminalization is that some drugs are FAR too dangerous to just let people have free access to it. Meth, Heroin, Cocaine, Valium, and a host of other drugs are FAR too addictive and habit altering to allow people to just take them for a recreational high.

First of all is the USA and its good old wisdom of letting others make all the big decisions for it. If we were to allow Meth to become like alcohol this country would self destruct in a year. Comparing drugs like Meth, Coke, heroin, and the host of others to Marijuana is to use a properly fitting word Jaded and STUPID! The properties of Marijuana are not like the others which when you are coming down from and can't get another fix make you quite violent. I have had room mates find the love in both coke and meth and they are no longer my friends. Many of the controlled substances change people for the worst.

What there needs to be are FAR more draconian laws pertaining to the illegal manufacture and distribution of these controlled substances. I am not blessing marijuana from an utter lack of control myself but that is one drug that when decriminalized will have MUCH farther reaching benefits like letting Hemp become an ag product of America again. You are aware that the war of 1812 was triggered by of all things America siding with France and cutting England off of all things Rope! American rope was HIGHLY in demand and England was building a thriving navy to fight France with and without our rope their ships were worthless because they could not rig the sails. England's answer was to try to take it and they got their asses handed to them. The attack on New Orleans was actually two weeks after England surrendered thanks to bad communications of the day. The hemp industry was utterly destroyed when marijuana became illegal and hemp makes a lot more than just rope. That would mean more work for America as new hemp related industries sprang up and hemp can be grown on steep hillsides and other places where other produce cannot be grown.

Now back to blanket decriminalization: STUPID STUPID STUPID! A Harvard degree does not make you an authority on anything. If anything a Harvard degree means a smarter idiot has been unleashed on America!

America is way too soft on criminals. A person brewing Meth should be locked in a hole SO deep and forgotten that they become a faded memory. No matter what humans have a talent to take good things and pervert them into evil. I have seen justifiable uses for meth. I knew a woman who did diet and could not loose weight at all. Under tightly controlled administration and a LOT of required councilling to prevent meth addiction she finally lost weight and likewise managed to save her own life because she had a heart condition that they were able to correct without any funky heart medications. Meth did save her life but it was administered under very controlled conditions.

Even cocaine has a legitimate use. Many pain killers are derived from cocaine. Novacaine and any other pain killer is derived from a cocaine base.

My brother had a great idea for helping fight the war on poverty and the war on drugs in one easy move. Let us look at the LICIT opium market. India is the ONLY supplier of licit opium in the world. This is not the only place opium is grown and manufactured. Now we look at Afghanistan. Opium is a problem there. Farmers grow it because it is the only crop that makes them money. The criminal elements are the ones profiting from this since Afghanistan cannot enforce or control the problem. Enter the Americans with an intelligent idea (I WISH). First we tell India they no longer are the only show in town and bid them a good day. We go to the Afghani farmers and tell them to go ahead and plant one quarter of their fields with poppies and buy all of it from them. We even hand them rifles and ammo as part of the deal. To participate they must use the other 3/4s of their fields for produce to feed themselves. The farmers make legitimate money, the price of licit opium goes down, the criminals loose money, Afghani farmers and likewise Afghanistan now begins to share in global prosperity and the Taliban and organized crime takes a bad hit as well as facing people who can and will defend themselves.

The same program can be applied in South America for Cocaine. the unfortunate reality is as long as vice exists there will be those seeking to be vice lords profiting from the misery and despair of others. They are just as creative as anyone else are and to trivialize them by 'legalizing' all drugs is plain stupid. That would be the same thing as tossing a bucket full of liquid Ether into a fire after drenching yourself in gasoline. Meth is the one drug that is not dependent on natural plant sources and enforcement is already a headache because a lot of meth labs are mobile! All you can do is shake up the users and track the product trail to its source though its distributors. Then the law needs to come down on them like a planet killing asteroid.

I am so blown away by how uneducated some of these Harvard taught pricks really are!

I still wonder about the taxing drugs. How many dealers want to pay taxes when they do it under the table now??? how many users want tax hikes? but that still doesn't stop people from committing crimes to support their habits.

Hi, yeah, it's me again. What exactly is stopping peoples access to these drugs in the first place?

Prohibition is a failure. As a sidenote, it would only be the same 20% that run to use that hardcore stuff, just like it is under prohibition. The only difference is, you take the money maker away from the cartels and gangs.