ABSTRACT: In an interview published by the German weekly magazine "Der Spiegal" - an extract of which we are publishing here - American Nobel Prizewinner Milton Friedman claims that all attempts at resolving the drugs problem with criminal laws and police measures are destined to fail. "State intervention - affirms Friedman - creates a market for drugs at exorbitant prices, which fosters the birth of crime syndicates".

(THE PARTY new - N. 7 - May 1992)

Question: "The US spends 12 billion dollars a year in waging its "war on drugs". When did this "war" start?".

Answer: "Richard Nixon began it in 1969, and lost. Reagan took it up again, but was unable to beat the problem. Then Bush declared "all-out war" and appointed William Bennet as the drugs "Tsar": Bennet retired from the picture after forecasting that the measures he had introduced would be one hundred percent successful. This was not the case. In 1972, I had already predicted that Nixon's anti-drug programme would be a failure, and requested the liberalization of drugs. I would like to see prohibitionism abrogated, and I am campaigning to have drugs made subject to the same laws as alcohol and tobacco".

Q: "The sale of which is legal".

A: "With certain restrictions. Alcohol cannot be sold to minors. In certain places it can only be sold on state-controlled premises, and cannot be sold before church services are held".

Q: "Who would produce the drugs?".

A: "The people who know how to do it best: the pharmaceutical industry".

Q: "If there were a legal drugs market, who would supply the raw materials to the pharmaceutical industry? Can you really see poppy-fields in Kansas or marijuana plantations in California?".

A: Why not? Besides, marijuana crops are still grown in spite of the anti- drug squads' attempts to wipe them out. The US drugs policy has always focussed on marijuana. War was declared on this drug, in spite of the fact that not one person has died from a marijuana overdose, and scientific research has classified the drug as harmless dozens of times. When marijuana became more expensive, drug users suddenly found cocaine, and also crack, to be more of a bargain. Prohibitionism caused them to progress from a harmless drug to one that was extremely dangerous. The current US drugs policy, and its effects, has been the ruin of all major American cities: every year, the number of drugs-related homicides increases by 10,000; the prisons are overcrowded, and the police have very little time to deal with other crimes".

Q: "As the "war on drugs" has not produced a single victory, might it be correct to suppose that powerful forces are using both their money and their influence to prevent these victories from taking place?".

A: "People who make their money from drug-trafficking will do anything to protect their source of income. It is one of the fundamental business rules".

Q: "But would legalization be effective against those authorities who favour the persecution drug abusers?".

A: "In a certain sense, persecutors and the persecuted have a common interest in the "war on drugs". The persecuted, the pushers, and the suppliers have a lot to gain from prohibitionism. And so have their persecutors: their budgets increase continually, and their salaries grow bigger and bigger. They are assured promotion and fame".