Introduction

The production and distribution of illegal drugs has much in common with legal sales enterprises. Although legal, many people view as less than ethical some of the efforts by the United States government which focus on foreign producers. Public health concerns are the primary reason why illegal drugs are likely to remain illegal. There is little evidence that crop eradication programs can be successful because the products which are illegal in the United States can be grown in a wide variety of locales. Once illegal drugs have entered the United States and have been divided among distributors, detection and confiscation become much more difficult because most middle-level dealers are very careful to sell only to known persons. The emphasis is added to the original to stress the fact that enforcement has not been effective at the upper levels of the drug distribution organization within the United States.