The Federal Narcotics Bureaucracy and Drug Policy

Abstract

The author proposes that the problem of controlling and regulating the consumption of opiate-type and other kinds of drugs be removed from Federal jurisdiction and turned over to the states as was done with alcohol and is now quietly beginning to be done with marihuana. This proposal includes drastic reduction and redistribution of present Federal enforcement functions, especially of those that constitute duplication of effort and could more appropriately be handled by other agencies, state and Federal. A review of the past record of this enforcement bureaucracy indicates that it merits substantial dismemberment and that its elimination as a Washington lobbying power would create a more favorable environment for needed reform.