When policy analysts suggest that the emperor has no clothes or that we should try new strategies, the emotional response often is that we cannot and never will surrender to the drug menace. However, it is possible to delineate patiently the contours of a new rational middle ground of drug abuse policy which involves neither confrontational war, nor victory, nor surrender. It might, though, involve a state of relative peace on the drug front, a condition earnestly to be desired. (Author abstract modified)