When I had made more money than I needed for myself and my family, I set up a foundation to promote the values and principles of a free and open society.

It's not whether you're right or wrong that's important, but how much money you make when you're right and how much you lose when you're wrong

You could adjust the punishment to fit the infraction. Even a small fine would be enough to bring an errant government to heel.

Regulating and taxing marijuana would simultaneously save taxpayers billions of dollars in enforcement and incarceration costs, while providing many billions of dollars in revenue annually.

Everything adds up to a major crisis. Humanity is faced with a global energy crisis ... The core of the crisis lies in the increasing shortage of oil.

I'll tell you what I'd do if it were up to me: I would establish a strictly controlled distribution network through which I would make most drugs, excluding the most dangerous ones like crack, legally available. Initially I would keep the prices low enough to destroy the drug trade. Once that objective was attained I would keep raising the prices, very much like the excise duty on cigarettes, but I would make an exception for registered addicts in order to discourage crime. I would use a portion of the income for prevention and treatment. And I would foster social opprobrium of drug use.

However, even a strong government can't perform miracles. It needs money from the taxpayers.