Society existed over 100 years with no drug prohibition till someone got mad at Chinese using opium in SF and NY. Alcohol prohibition created organized crime and street gangs. We spend billions fighting human nature and we lost but kept pouring money down the rat hole. Freedom is risky, scary to some, but it beats the other considerations. Edmund how do you like our war on drugs and imprisoning people.
— ——Morphing Libertarian 2017
It was the Civil War that primed the nation for rampant drug addiction. So much Opium and Cocaine was used as pain killers for war injuries that it caused a demand for product. Product eventually moved into the civilian sector.
Had we not stopped it, we would have logistical growth of addiction, just as China did.