s time events followed what may be called the "regular" pattern. A wave of new and restrictive drug laws was passed, and a charismatic federal official "czar" took the lead in championing the punitive approach towards drug control. Rehabilitative approaches were damned as "soft" and ineffective. Presently the drug issue faded from public consciousness, and while harsh laws remained on the books actual enforcement efforts eventually faded in terms of the resources committed and publicity reaped. Then another "crisis" arose, and the cycle repeated itself.
Yet the circularity, as we shall see, has not been complete. The punitive, law enforcement approach was most ascendent from the middle 1920s to the middle 1960s, a period which Courtwright, Joseph, and Des Jarlais (1989: 1) have dubbed the "classic period" of drug enforcement policy. Even when relatively little attention was paid to drugs, the enforcement system remained in place and public attitudes were unyieldingly hostile to drugs.
The period since the middle 1960s ha
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