France is beginning to move toward some degree of acceptance of methadone treatment programs for heroin addicts, partially spurred by a concern that AIDS is spread through intravenous drug use. However, the association between North African immigrants, drug trafficking, and heroin and cocaine use is largely ignored by the government because of its potential political repercussions. Great Britain and the Netherlands have instituted pragmatic drug treatment policies and AIDS prevention approaches and have been reintegrating addiction treatment into routine medical practice. The reunification of the two Germanys will have a biological as well as political and economic effects -- the merging of a smaller population virtually free of drug use and AIDS with a larger population exhibiting significant levels of both. The demand for and supply of drugs will inevitably increase among the former population. A rational German drug policy would include early identification of problem drug users, training of general practice doctors to treat addicts, development of a range of treatment options and clinical services, and the use of drug problems to identify families damaged by the social transformation already underway.