Renowned economist Milton Friedman says the several-decades-old War on Drugs gives a historical perspective to objections to the criminalization of drugs. In 1972, Friedman criticized federal anti-drug activities on both moral and expediential grounds, writing that "we have no right to use force, directly or indirectly, to prevent a fellow man from committing suicide, let alone from drinking alcohol or taking drugs."

Now he points out the ill effects of the War on Drugs.

• The use of informers has generated corruption and "led to violations of the civil rights of innocent people, to the shameful practices of forcible entry and forfeiture of property without due process."

• The attempt to prohibit drugs is by far the major source of the horrendous growth in the prison population -- amounting to an eight-fold increase since 1970.

• A disproportionate number of those incarcerated are blacks.

• Wealthy drug dealers have become role models for inner-city children, as bullets fly between competing drug dealers only because drug dealing is illegal.

Friedman also notes that a scarcity of needles has caused them to be shared, with disastrous consequences to public health. Then there is the denial of drugs to chronically ill patients who are in pain.

Finally, he comments on the effect the U.S. War on Drugs has had on foreign countries. Dealing in drugs which are banned has led to thousands of deaths in countries such as Colombia, Peru and Mexico, and destabilized their governments.

Summing up, Friedman asks whether any policy can be moral "if it leads to widespread corruption, imprisons so many, has so racist an effect, destroys our inner-cities, wreaks havoc on misguided and vulnerable individuals and brings death and destruction to foreign countries."