by Herbert D. Kleber and Mitchell S. Rosenthal

About the authors: Herbert D. Kleber is executive vice president and medical director at the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse and director of the Division on Substance Abuse Research at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons. Mitchell S. Rosenthal is president of Phoenix House, a national network of drug treatment and prevention facilities.

Few issues generate more heat than substance abuse. Most Americans yearn for simple solutions that will make the problem go away. Ethan A. Nadelmann thinks he has found some in the experiences of some foreign countries. These, he argues, are sensible alternatives to America’s failed policies (“Commonsense Drug Policy,” Foreign Affairs, January/February 1998). But his analysis merely further disseminates myths about...