United States
In general, substances that are illegal across the US include hallucinogens (mescaline, LSD), stimulants (amphetamines, cocaine), marijuana, hashish, MDMA (ecstasy) and depressants (opium, heroin and barbiturates). The federal Controlled Substances Act establishes a series of five categories into which all controlled and prescription substances are placed. Among other drugs, heroin and marijuana are placed in Category I defining them as having a high potential for abuse with no accepted medical use in treatment in the US. The federal legislation does not allow Category I substances to be prescribed by doctors or sold in pharmacies. On the other hand Category II substances such as cocaine are defined as accepted for medical use with severe restrictions. Category III, IV and V are progressively less restrictive.

Since federal laws act only as a framework for state policy, the bulk of new US drug laws are established and reformed within state legislatures. This means that even though drug users can be penalized for violating federal laws, a state government is not required to possess identical laws and a state may pass policies that conflict with federal laws.

In spite of such progressive changes the US drug policy as a whole remains punitive. Drug sellers, drug related crime and drug trafficking - particularly when liked to terrorism - continue to be the primary targets in America's war against drugs. Consequently, vast public resources at both the federal and state levels are spent on law enforcement leaving less than 30 per cent of funds for preventative, reformative and educational programs. A growing number of individuals are arrested for drug related crimes each year. Currently around one quarter of the 2 million citizens imprisoned in US jails are charged with drug offenses. The majority of these charges are for possession, especially of marijuana. Also, various state and federal laws deny former drug offenders access to public housing, loans for college, federal benefits for themselves and their children, and even the right to vote.

Latin America
Latin America has been a major source of illicit drugs in the United States for decades. Over the past fifteen years, the U.S. has spent more than $25 billion on source country eradication and interdiction. Despite these efforts, the price of cocaine and heroin are at record lows while purity is at a record high - evidence that these drugs are more available than ever. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), 82% of heroin in the U.S. comes from Latin America. Colombia alone produces three-quarters of the world's cocaine supply.
	
Eradication refers to attempts to eliminate drug crops while they are being grown. One major reason that eradication programs have failed is the tendency of drug crops to be displaced rather than eliminated. For example, during the mid 1990s eradication efforts in Bolivia and Peru created incentives to grow coca in Colombia. While Peru experienced a 66% reduction in coca cultivation and Bolivia experienced a 53% reduction, coca cultivation in Colombia doubled. In addition, more potent strains of coca have been developed, leading to higher yielding coca crops. Experts compare eradication efforts to squeezing a balloon. Even if the air is squeezed out of one part, it is simply transferred to another part.

U.S. anti-drug intervention in Latin America also has a devastating impact on the environment. For example, U.S. sponsored and backed eradication programs in Colombia have led to the clearing of over 1.75 million acres of Amazon rainforest. Colombia is the second most biodiverse country in the world, but drug war deforestation has led experts to predict that Colombia could become another Somalia or Ethiopia within 50 years, meaning that the population would grow faster than its poor agricultural soils can produce food. Also, aerial eradication efforts are responsible for the destruction of legal subsistence crops and the pesticide glyphosate is suspected of causing a variety of health problems in Colombian children, including diarrhea, hair loss, and skin rashes.

Europe

Political and economic change in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union brought with it many new freedoms. While this new openness gave rise to many positive developments in the region, it also had consequences - among them a surging supply of illegal drugs to meet a rapidly increasing demand. Drug availability expanded as organized crime networks gained strength and expanded operations. Meanwhile, the capacity of law enforcement to control illegal activity attenuated.

Overwhelming evidence now confirms a massive increase in drug use - particularly of heroin and other injectable substances - in most countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union during the past decade. Recent estimates suggest that there are currently between 2.3 and 4 million injecting drug users in the region and that the number of users is growing.

Eastern Europe has become the latest front-line of the AIDS epidemic, an epidemic driven here almost entirely by injecting drug use. In 1995, HIV infections in the region of 450 million people was estimated at 30,000. HIV infections are reportedly doubling annually since 1998, and now it is estimated that more than a million people are infected.

Responding to this growing crisis is a program Drug Policy Alliance works very closely with, the International Harm Reduction Development program (IHRD) of the Open Society Institute. IHRD supports over one hundred drug user projects in more than twenty countries in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, and works to influence national-level drug policies and practices by sponsoring advocacy, research, conferences and decision-maker study tours.