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Update on Drug Legalization
Collection StructureFiring Line broadcast records > Episode guide > Update on Drug Legalization
Item Title Update on Drug Legalization
Guest Szasz, Thomas Stephen (1920-)
Guest Grinspoon, Lester (1928-)
Host Buckley, William F., Jr. (1925-2008)
Moderator Kinsley, Michael E.
Date CreatedJune 29, 1988
Description

Guests and host all agree that drugs should be legalized, but at that point Dr. Szasz

takes leave of the others (and, some would say, of his senses). Dr. Grinspoon would

legalize drugs but tax them heavily, to pay for the social costs of drug use; Mr. Buckley

was developing his "federal drugstore" idea, to provide drugs cheaply enough to get

organized crime out of the business, but in a regulated fashion; and Dr. Szasz calls any

sanctions "scapegoating." One sample: TS: "Let's take some heroin addict who, at age

25, ODs. Look at the amount of money he has saved society by not being on welfare for

the next 60 years, and not being in jail and not mugging people." WFB: "But suppose he

wasn't going to be on welfare. Suppose he was going to be Thomas Edison." TS:

"That's unlikely that he would be so undisciplined then." WFB: "I don't think it's unlikely at all... Unfortunately there's no correspondence between genius and the

capacity to self-destruct."

Language(s)
Country of Origin
Place RecordedNew York City, New York, United States
DimensionsDuration: 30 minutes
FormatText
Medium television programs
Aspect Ratio
4:3
Color
color
Soundtrack
sound
Hoover IDProgram S0781
Record Number80040.1028
NotesVideo not currently available for purchase.
RightsCopyright held by Stanford University. This copy is provided for educational and research purposes only. No publication, further reproduction, or reuse of copies, beyond fair use, may be made without the express written permission of the Hoover Institution Library & Archives on behalf of Stanford University.
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