The most striking characteristics of the U.S. response to illicit drugs in the last decade have been its scale and its punitiveness. This intended punitiveness is reflected in Federal and State budgets. Approximately three-quarters of the national drug-control budget is spent on apprehending and punishing drug dealers and users, with treatment receiving about two-thirds of the remainder. State and local government are even more enforcement-oriented than the Federal Government. Increasing punitiveness has not accomplished its immediate objectives of raising price and reducing availability. Drug use has declined, but the most proximate cause seems to be a shift in attitudes regarding the use of specific drugs. Although enforcement might influence these perceptions, there is no correlation between crude measures of toughness and those perceptions. The policy of toughness has also created racial divisiveness as the punitive effort has disproportionately impacted African-Americans and has increased police intrusiveness into the lives of citizens. Compared to the U.S. drug policy, Europeans generally view illicit drug use as primarily a personal and health problem; whereas, the U.S. policy views it as primarily a crime problem. Research has been virtually ignored in the development of drug policy in the United States. The political irrelevance of the repeated findings that drug treatment has a very high benefit-cost ratio is a sober reminder that the political decision making in the United States is driven by considerations other than those based in empirical analyses of the problem and what works most effectively in addressing it. 20 notes