The war on drugs is a failure. And the very effort to attain this goal is already tearing at the democratic fabric of this country. Nadelmann is the director of the Lindesmith Center, a drug policy research institute in New York that is affiliated with George Soros's Open Society. Nadelmann has some sympathy for the libertarian argument in favor of legalizing drugs. We are taking what is a health issue and a personal relaxation and enjoyment issue, and we are criminalizing it with a pervasive, far-reaching, insidious, prohibitionist regime.
Sharpe makes the case against the libertarian argument for legalization.
We don't need to endorse companies making huge profits by selling things that are bad for people. Nor do the libertarians allow for any governmental role to help addicts, whereas we do. In our view, it's important to distinguish between marijuana and harder drugs like cocaine, ampheta-mines, and heroin. We believe that all offenses related to marijuana should be decriminalized immediately. Dealers in the harder drugs try to get their customers to buy upscale, he explains.