The study followed a group of experimental and control subjects in Argentina, Costa Rica, Japan, Brazil, Italy, Jordan, Malaysia, Singapore, and the United States of America. Additionally, independent studies conducted in Sweden and the United Kingdom were also assessed. All studies showed a close correlation between drug abuse, criminal behavior, and social attitudes to such problems. There was no correlation between diminished drug abuse and criminality and the harshness of a sociolegal system's punishment for drug abuse. In each country informal control systems such as the family, school, church, work environment and neighborhood were also studied. Residents of countries with punitive social-legal systems saw informal controls as also harsh and punitive, while those in countries with less punitive social-legal systems saw informal controls as positive. The study recommends that countries implement alternatives to penal sanctions so that the deviant behavior of drug abusers can be corrected by therapeutic approaches. 19 footnotes. (Author abstract modified.)