A new global drug control regime is needed. It must reject the foolish rhetoric of creating “a drug-free world” and acknowledge that the true challenge is learning to live with drugs so that they cause the least harm. An effective strategy needs to establish realistic objectives and criteria for evaluating success or failure, and these criteria must focus on reducing the death, disease, crime and suffering associated with both drug use and drug policies. It also must embrace the principle that people should not be punished for what they put into their bodies, but only for the harms they do others. Those are the key elements of a more ethical and effective drug control regime than the one that haunts today’s world.