On Drug Policy, Friedman Was Probably MORE Liberal Than Any UC Faculty Who Signed The Letter
Submitted by CARPE DIEM
A long list (about 100) of University of Chicago faculty members (mostly from liberal arts fields like political science, gender studies, sociology, history, philosophy, English, etc., and not a single economics professor) signed this letter to the UC President and Provost, objecting to the establishment of the Milton Friedman Institute on their campus. One objection in the letter is:
“When the University of Chicago invests so heavily in culturally and politically conservative thought we wonder about its commitment to strong intellectual diversity.”
In this two-part interview (Part 1 and Part 2), Milton Friedman outlines his objections to drug prohibition and his strong support of drug legalization. On drug prohibition, Friedman says “The state has no right to tell me what to put IN my mouth, and more than it has a right to tell me what can come OUT OF my mouth,” and “Drug prohibition has absolutely no positive effects whatsoever. Every effect I can see is a harmful effect.”
Here is a copy of Milton Friedman’s 1972 Newsweek column where he advocates drug legalization, at the height of President Nixon’s “War or Drugs.”
Bottom Line: When it comes to drug policy, Milton Friedman certainly did not demonstrate politically conservative thought, but liberal or libertarian thought. In fact, Friedman was so liberal and anti-conservative on drug legalization, he probably makes many of the signees of the letter look like CONSERVATIVES - how many of them publicly support drug legalization like Friedman did?
Thanks to Don Boudreaux for the link to the videos.
