“there is no such thing as ‘legalizing’ something that has such a deleterious potential”
Recreational drugs were federally legal until 1909.
And then they were made illegal. They also weren't "recreational" in the modern usage of the term. They were sold as cures for various ailments. None of them were marketed as "Let's get high!" entertainment.
But they weren't the same problem in an age with a moral underpinning which ostracized such usage. The societal taboos make recreational drug use effectively illegal.