ABSTRACT

This chapter shows that the United States (US) has over the years created powerful and generally competent federal agencies to deal with the narcotics problem. The US government has muddled through in the fashion of a novice Rubik cube puzzle-solver without a sufficiently developed and effective strategy. The chapter discusses the need for a new paradigm on which to base international narcotics control programs and describes the persistence of the narcotics problem, the long-range nature of solutions to illicit drug consumption, and the evolution of US government narcotics control programs and strategies. It shows that the time is right for a new strategy and theory of engagement and that Max G. Manwaring's paradigm for gray area phenomena offers a solid basis for an improved and more effective US international narcotics control effort. The federal government's initiation of laws and creation of a narcotics control bureaucracy had begun during the nineteenth century, principally within the Department of State.