Results revealed that Australia spent $320 million on drug law enforcement in 1992. However, little is known about the returns received. Overall, drug law enforcement in Australia falls short of being a rational system despite significant improvements over the last decade or so in interagency cooperation and in the efficiency and effectiveness of individual units. The crucial problem is the lack of measurement of the impacts of enforcement agencies. In addition, systematic inconsistency appears to exist between the most commonly declared aim of law enforcement (to target high-level financiers, importers, and drug traffickers) and what is actually being achieved. Data on drug-related charges and arrests reveal clearly that the impacts of criminal justice continue to fall mainly on the lower-end distributors and users rather than high-level operators. Recommended improvements include broadening the goals of drug law enforcement and adding the objective of applying relevant laws in ways that minimize harm to direct users and the broader society. Significant administrative restructuring will be required to achieve the broadened roles. Local police can have critical influences both in deterring local distribution and consumption and in monitoring and reshaping local markets to minimize health problems, drug-related crime, and other harms. Additional recommendations, tables, appended instrument and other methodological information, and reference lists