Global Habit: The Drug Problem in a Borderless World

Illegal drugs are wreaking havoc across the globe, but the revenues generated by the retail sale of these substances exceeds the gross national products of three-fourths of the world's 207 global economies. In Global Habit, Paul B. Stares, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute in Washington, illustrates both sides of this complicated issue and notes that the appetite for dangerous drugs shows no sign of diminishing. Sanctions against drug trafficking should be maintained, he says, but treatment and prevention must become the dominant means of reducing production and consumption. Serious worldwide cooperation, he argues, is the only way to end the epidemic.