Milton Friedman

“There is no logical basis for the prohibition of marijuana,” Friedman once said. “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.”

“Dr. Friedman was a lifetime dues-paying member of the Marijuana Policy Project and a strong advocate for ending marijuana prohibition,” MPP executive director Rob Kampia says. “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 led some 530 economists who signed a communiqué encouraging “an open and honest debate about marijuana prohibition.” Their June 2005 letter continued: “We believe such a debate will favor a regime in which marijuana is legal but taxed and regulated like other goods.” These economists cited a study by Harvard’s Jeffrey R. Miron. He calculated that ending marijuana prohibition would save taxpayers $13.9 billion annually: $7.7 billion in foregone law-enforcement and $6.2 billion in new tax receipts.