This book analyses the historical, economic and political context for the current prohibition of particular drugs. The study investigates the problem of drug control providing a systematic analysis of the development of the international system of regulation. Identifying the political rationalities that provided the basis of that system, it positions these moral justifications for exercising power in relation to the practical programs that put them into practice. The objective of the work is not simply to catalogue the techniques and strategies employed in the process of governing illicit drugs, but also to note the failures, unintended consequences and other difficulties associated with getting such programs to work.