Thomas Jefferson had to deal with public drunkenness. Which had been a problem for a 1000 years before Thomas Jefferson was born.
Crack, heroin, and even pot smoking were basically unknown in Jefferson's day.
Yeah, yeah, I know that Jefferson and Washington grew hemp, but they didn't smoke it and Martha Washington didn't put out the communal bong in the parlor after dinner.
They grew hemp for rope and paper.
Public drunkenness and private drunkenness also will be a problem for the forseeable future. Only lunatics wish to make the control of people's eating, drinking, and drug-using a priority of government.
I'm astonished that this essentially totaliarian and utopian view has so much traction among American conservatives. When 'Liberals' draw up guidelines for improving the world, I am not surprised; when conservatives do so, I am.
Human nature is not changing as quickly as cooking methods.