Pubdate: Sun, 19 Nov 2006
Source: Contra Costa Times (CA)
Column: The Eye on the East Bay
Copyright: 2006 Knight Ridder
Contact:  http://www.contracostatimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/96
Note: Denis Cuff, Andrew McGall and Eric Louie contributed to this column.
Note: Relevant lead section of a longer column.
Cited: Marijuana Policy Project http://www.mpp.org
Cited: The Budgetary Implications of Marijuana Prohibition 
http://www.prohibitioncosts.org
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Milton+Friedman (Milton Friedman)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Marijuana)
Bookmark: Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Marijuana - Medicinal)

FRIEDMAN WANTED MARKET FOR POT

Tributes flowed last week after the death of Nobel Prize-winning 
economist Milton Friedman in San Francisco.

The accolades lauded the "grand-master" of free-market economic 
theory as one of the 20th-century leading scholars of economic conservatism.

But did you know that Friedman's passing was also lamented by the 
Washington-based Marijuana Policy Project?

"Dr. Friedman was a lifetime dues-paying member of MPP and a strong 
advocate for ending marijuana prohibition," the organization's 
executive director, Rob Kampia, said in a news release.

Friedman was one of 500 economists to endorse an MPP-commissioned 
Harvard report that estimated ending marijuana prohibition would save 
taxpayers $7.7 billion a year while generating $6.2 billion in tax 
revenue with a system to regulate and tax marijuana like alcohol, 
according to MPP.

You can see the study and Friedman's letter at www.prohibitioncosts.org.

"It's absolutely disgraceful to think of picking up a 22-year-old for 
smoking pot," Friedman is quoted by MPP as saying. "More disgraceful 
is the denial of marijuana for medical purposes."