The Quest for Drug Control: Politics and Federal Policy in a Period of Increasing Substance Abuse, 1963-1981

by David F. Musto, M.D., HS ’67, professor in the Child Study Center and professor of psychiatry and the history of medicine, and Pamela Korsmeyer, former research associate in the Child Study Center

Yale University Press (New Haven) 2002

Between 1963 and 1981 various administrations attempted to deal with a rising tide of illicit drug use that was unprecedented in U.S. history. This book provides a close look at the politics and bureaucracy of drug-control policy during those years, showing how they changed under presidents Johnson, Nixon, Ford and Carter and how much current federal drug-control policies owe to those earlier efforts.

Musto and Korsmeyer base this analysis on a unique collection of 5,000 pages of White House documents from the period, all of which are included on a searchable CD-ROM that accompanies the book. These documents reveal the intense debates that took place over drug policy. This investigation into the decision-making processes that shaped past drug-control efforts in the United States provides essential background for evaluating future approaches to the drug problem.