What we call trickle-down processes of determining drug policy are unsatisfactory, for two reasons. First, any policy position that can be deduced from sweeping principles is probably itself too broad to serve the public interest efficiently. Second, policy choices usually cannot be inferred at all from broad attitudes toward illicit drugs. Policy choice in drug control is a matter of providing answers to questions like: How many government resources should we devote to drug control rather than other pressing societal problems? Which drugs should be the priority focus of government programs? What specific deleterious consequences of drug use should treatment and prevention programs regard as special priorities for prevention and treatment? What mechanisms should we choose to reduce the supply of illicit drugs? These are questions of means as well as ends, specific choices that force us to identify those aspects of drug use that we regard as particularly problematic.

The right kind of drug policies should be built from the ground up, based on a determination of priority problems. The materials presented in this part of the book have been organized in accordance with this view of the policy process. Chapters 5 and 6 address what are regarded as the two most important problems associated with illicit drug taking: child endangerment and predatory crime. Each chapter assesses what is known about the nature of the problem and the implications of current knowledge for specific patterns of drug policy.