Drug laws rest on the pretense that illegal drugs, officially classified as dangerous, are in fact more dangerous than legal drugs, not officially classified as dangerous or even as drugs. Drug laws pose a greater threat to Americans than do drugs. Why do people want drugs? Basically, for the same reasons we want other goods. We want drugs to relieve our pains, cure our diseases, enhance our endurance, change our moods, put us to sleep, or simply make us feel better. We purchase other goods to make our lives more productive and more pleasant. Each year, tens of thousands of people are injured and killed in accidents associated with various goods that have been legally marketed and purchased. In most cases, we expect people who purchase potentially harmful products to familiarize themselves with their use and avoid injuring themselves or others. If they hurt themselves, we assume they did so accidentally, and we attempt to heal their injuries. If they hurt others negligently, the law provides ways to hold them accountable in both civil and criminal forums. After generations of living under medical tutelage that provides us with protection against dangerous drugs, we have failed to cultivate the self-reliance and self-discipline required of competent adults surrounded by the fruits of our pharmacological-technological age. The author argues that our medical-statist policies regarding drugs closely resemble the Soviets' economic-statist policies regarding consumer goods. The book's thesis is that what is called "the drug problem" is a complex set of interrelated phenomena that are the products of personal temptation, choice, and responsibility, combined with a set of laws and social policies generated by our reluctance to face this fact in a forthright manner. A limited government, such as that of the United States, lacks the political legitimacy to deprive competent adults of the right to use whatever substances they choose. It is futile to debate whether the War on Drugs should be escalated or de-escalated without first addressing the popular, medical, and political mind-set concerning the trade in drugs generated by nearly a century of drug prohibitions. The author suggests that we ought to consider the possibility that a free market in drugs is not only imaginable in principle but, given the necessary personal motivation of a people, is just as practical and beneficial as is a free market in other goods. Chapter notes, a 97-item bibliography, and name and subject indexes