In his new book, "The Fix," journalist Michael Massing argues that Nixon, more than any other recent president, accepted that treatment for hard-core drug users was far more effective -- and practical -- than incarceration.

Salon News spoke to Massing about the poor public image of methadone, the limitations of "Just Say No" and why only a Republican can usher in a new age of drug policy.

Were Nixon's drug policies notably different from those of his successors?

When I began to look into the history of the war on drugs, I really did not expect to find anything of great interest, anything different from the standard policy of using law enforcement to fight drugs. But as I began doing the research, several people in the field, whom I interviewed, said, "Well, if you're looking at this history, you have to look at the Nixon era because he really had the most innovative program of any president and it stressed treatment." I was somewhat disbelieving at first, but the more I began to research it, and when I found Nixon's first drug czar, Dr. Jerome Jaffe, and began to talk to him about his experience, I just became completely fascinated by the Nixon experience. While Nixon did launch the war on drugs, he also made treatment its major weapon.

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