For almost a third of a century, from 1930 until 1962, one man, Harry Jacob Anslinger (1892-1975), had the dominant role in shaping and enforcing U.S. policy about the use of drugs—other than alcohol and tobacco. Understanding his life and work is, therefore, a necessity for understanding the evolution of federal drug policies through the end of the twentieth century. Anslinger was Commissioner of the U.S. Treasury Department Bureau of Narcotics from 1930 to 1962, chief U.S. delegate to international drug agencies until 1970, and a leading proponent of repressive antidrug measures in the United States—and worldwide.

Anslingerwas born in Altoona, Pennsylvania, May 20, 1892, the eighth of nine children in a Swiss immigrant family. At the age of twelve, he was sent by a neighbor to pick up a package of morphine from the drugstore...