OK, now that Jesus is in play I'd like to say that his battle is with Satan. Satan has many weapons from which to choose and drug abuse is only one of them.
Ratty is not on Satan's side - he is trying to say how far our country, and its people have slid into collective-think since the days of our founders. Those guys battled the demons of their day, but they knew that at the heart and sould of America should be the Individual's God given right to make his own choices and to live with the consequences without the interference of government.
It seems to me that you two are arguing different sides of the same coin: when government took the place of the church, the mother and father, the teaching in the home, and the individual's right to do as he pleased as long as it didn't hurt another's life or property - we are collectively, and individually screwed. bbl