Contributors review the development of the drug abuse problem in West Germany, explain the effects of drug abuse, and illustrate the characteristics of commonly used controlled substances including opiates, cannabis, cocaine, and synthetic drugs. Others address the police role in drug law enforcement, particularly emphasizing the need to target organized international trafficking, multilateral coordination, and various surveillance and infiltration techniques. A delineation of legal agreements between Germany and other nations indicates the extent of coordinated international drug control efforts. One article analyzes the operations of organized international drug rings and the social, economic, and political conditions favorable to this global crime form. Police prevention efforts are also addressed, as are the specific provisions of the reformulated West German drug law. The concluding paper offers a summary of drug user characteristics in West Germany, derived from an extensive analysis of law enforcement, medical, and social agency data on drug abuse and enforcement. Footnotes, tabular data, charts, photographs, and references are provided with individual articles. For individual articles, see NCJ-89171-79.