The opening paper reviews and interprets the history of narcotics control efforts in the United States, with attention to relevant Federal legislation and factors that have influenced the structured response to drug abuse. This is followed by a tracing of the emergence of drug abuse as a current priority in political circles. Three papers explore the link between drug abuse and crime, with one paper focusing on violent crime. They conclude that drug abuse is a primary factor in determining the pattern, persistence, and intensity of a criminal career. Drug use is related to violence, but in varied ways. One paper argues that street-level heroin enforcement is needed to maintain order, improve relations between the police and the community, suppress drug consumption, and reduce property crime. The degree to which these goals can be achieved depends on the particular drug targeted. A review of the literature on drug abuse treatment describes the three major treatment modalities (outpatient methadone, residential, and outpatient drug-free) and reviews general studies of drug abuse treatment. Another paper examines why the systematic identification of drug abusing offenders might be beneficial to the criminal justice system, reviews methods that could be used to identify drug-involved offenders, and examines the legal and ethical issues in urine testing for drug abuse. Two concluding papers focus on the practical use of drug testing to reduce crime, with a focus on drug use and pretrial crime in the District of Columbia. For individual papers, see NCJ-115197-202.