As the war on drugs has intensified, U.S. public policy has increasingly tended to view all illicit drugs as equally dangerous and possession of them an equally serious offense. Under the current regime of drug law enforcement, the Federal Government spends more on law enforcement to eliminate drug trafficking than on treatment for drug addicts; these authors question those priorities. While at its extreme, decriminalization would mean legalization of all drugs, it could also reduce the number of prosecutions for small-scale offenses. Chapter references