The first chapter examines the way American society thinks about drugs by analyzing both the vocabulary of the drug problem and the historical roots of contemporary attitudes. It redefines the drug problem by broadening the scope to cover the entire range of drug use and then by narrowing it to that drug-using behavior that properly should arouse social concern. The second chapter focuses on drug-using behavior in the context of individual and institutional (social) supports and deterrents. It describes more precisely recent trends in the incidence, prevalence, patterns, conditions, and circumstances of drug-using behavior and identifies more precisely the major classes or types of drug-using behavior. The next chapter assesses the individual and social consequences of drug use. Chapter four develops a coherent social policy to address the problems of drug abuse. It focuses on the availability of drugs, consumption-intervention strategies, defining the government's role, treatment and rehabilitation, prevention, research, and the private response. Chapter five considers the goal of the Commission's recommendations for the immediate future as well as policymaking over the long term. 550-item bibliography