Customer Reviews

Friedman and Szasz on Liberty and Drugs: Essays on the Free Market and Prohibition

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A tough subject deserves the application of great minds. Two of the greatest of the 20th century --also unrepentant defenders of liberty-- provide damning philosophical and observational evidence against the "war on drugs". This is a must-have book for those who believe that individuals, not governments, should control their bodies. It is also an excellent source book for students who need a counter-point to the hysterial agit-prop produced by the government and others frightened by inanimate objects (drugs). An excellent companion book is Dr. Szasz's "Our Right to Drugs". (See also: "The Federalist Papers" to learn the views of the American founders on self-control as a property right.)

Although I am congenial to the decriminalisation of drugs, I found that the two authors - both highly intelligent men, who have for decades been polemicists for freedom - make a number of irresponsible and self-defeating statements.

Friedman: "[W]e do not have to resolve the ethical issue [of whether the government should try to prevent drug addiction] to agree on policy because the answer to whether government action can prevent addiction is so clear." So does this mean policy reformers have to give up on reference to ethical issues? Rape and child abuse are notoriously difficult to prevent and prosecute - should the police and the courts give up on arresting and prosecuting rapists and child abusers?

Friedman: "The people who are running the drug traffic are no different from the rest of us, except that they have more entrepreneurial ability and less concern about not hurting other people." No comment necessary.

Szasz claims that medical research is nothing more than a quest to prohibit unpopular substances. He also says that independent people are dangerous to governments, yet he insists that he is not an anarchist.

Much of the resistance to drug decriminalization rests on fear of the unknown, and these authors do nothing to reduce those fears.