While drugs are assumed to be the cause of many societal ills, there is little evidence supporting relationships between illicit drugs and crime or violence or loss of worker productivity. The use of law enforcement techniques including entrapment and physical restraint and the erosion of civil liberties are two of the major costs of protecting society from drugs. The author maintains that drug use is generally not as dangerous to the individual as society believes, particularly among recreational users; the dangers of trying to protect the individual from himself through the criminalization of drug use also include the loss of individual freedoms. Current drug control policies do not rationally support a reduction in drug abuse. 60 references (Author abstract modified)