Over the years, various strategies for dealing with illegal drugs have been attempted. They include incentives to steer farmers away from raising plants such as poppies, hashish, and coca that are the source of illicit drugs. A common complaint is that none of the alternatives to providing such crops—whether it's raising cows in Lebanon or cucumbers in the Andes—is as lucrative or as easy. Recently, the Journal spoke with , who, under President Richard Nixon, became the United States' first drug czar. He offered some observations about then and now.
What drives the trade in illegal drugs?
It's a huge, huge business, possibly the biggest there is, and there's so much money in it—even for people at the lower levels. So there's no incentive to stop.
