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Townhall.com -Printer Friendly Page 2 of 2 Prize winners, including the late Milton Friedman of Stanford's Hoover Institution. Friedman and others were acting in response to a 2005 report on the budgetary implications of marijuana prohibition by Jeffrey Miron, visiting professor of economics at Harvard. By Miron's estimate, regulating marijuana would save about $7.7 billion annually in government prohibition enforcement $2.4 billion at the federal level and $5.3 billion at the state and local levels. That's a lot of money for English tutors and health care for indigents. Add to that amount income taxes that would have to be paid by marijuana producers. Drug dealers don't pay taxes, after all. Nor do they concern themselves much with rules of the workplace and worker welfare. Miron argues that legalizing marijuana would not increase use because decriminalization hasn't increased use. But, he says, legalization would reduce crime by neutralizing dealers and eliminating the violent black market. Legalizing marijuana isn't an endorsement of underage or irresponsible use. Best would be that everyone deal with life unmedicated, but adults arguably have a right to amuse themselves in ways that don't harm others. While some may balk at the idea of legalized pot, it seems clear that some remedy is in order. At the very least, a fresh, freewheeling debate free of politics and bureaucratic self-interest is overdue. Maybe AI Gore could moderate. Kathleen Parker is a syndicated columnist with the Washington Post Writers Group. Be the first to read Kathleen Parker's column. Sign up_today and rocelve Townhall.com delivered each morning to your inbox. Copyright p 2006 Salem Web Network. All Rights Reserved. Ads by Gooare 3 Conservative Books $1 Unite with the Right -Get 3 conservative books for $1.00! www. ConservativeBookCl ub. corn Advedise on dds sire http:llwww.townhall.com/Common/Print.aspx 7/23/2007