title: Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs
text: Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs is a position of the United States government within the Department of State that heads the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, which is responsible for development of policies and programs to combat international narcotics and crime. The current acting Assistant Secretary is Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary James A. Walsh.
  
  On October 1, 1978, Congress, in the Foreign Relations Authorization Act for fiscal Year 1979, authorized the position of Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics Matters, to be responsible for the overall coordination of the role of the Department of State in the international aspects of narcotics problems. This title had been given in full in each appointee's commission. The new Assistant Secretary, who headed the Bureau for International Narcotics Matters, replaced a Senior Adviser to the Secretary of State on Narcotics, who had served with a rank equivalent to an Assistant Secretary of State since 1971. The Department of State first supported the Department of the Treasury's Bureau of Narcotics in 1909. The title of this position was changed from International Narcotics Matters to International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs on February 10, 1995.
  
  List of Assistant Secretaries of State for International Narcotics Matters, 1979–1995
  
  List of Assistant Secretaries of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, 1995–present
  The title "Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics Matters" was renamed "Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs" on February 10, 1995.
  
  References
  
  External links
  Official website
  www.state.gov Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs
  The Office of the Historian's list of former Assistant Secretaries
  
   
  Drug policy of the United States