Once considered a harmless source of pleasure and therapeutic benefit, today the drug cocaine is vilified as the cause of great misery and suffering for many who have succumbed to its euphoric effects. Yet, by nearly all accounts, cocaine is here to stay, despite the billions of dollars that government agencies around the world spend each year to eliminate it.

From the streets of cities as large as Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago, to small rural towns, Americans consume more cocaine than does any other citizenry in the world. An estimated 80 percent of all South American cocaine—approximately one thousand tons annually—finds its way to America's consumers. The size of the market for cocaine is staggering by any measure. An estimated 40 million Americans admit to having tried cocaine, either in powdered form or as crack. Moreover, between 2 and 4 million people...