Why? 1) Racism. In the early part of the 20th Century, various drugs were made-to-be-correlated with "undesirable minorities". This very much in sync with the

Why? 1) Racism. In the early part of the 20th Century, various drugs were made-to-be-correlated with "undesirable minorities". This very much in sync with the impulse from William Randolph Hearst ( who owned a huge ranch in the Mexican state of Chihuahua and was partially responsible for an invasion of Mexico to go after Pancho Villa ). 2) Out-of-control heroin use in Vietnam inspired Nixon to first "golden flow" test returning service(wo)men and then declare the War on Drugs. 2a) Doctors in the '60s and '70s prescribed many, many, many pills. See also Betty Ford ( the person, not the clinic ). 3) Drug users are the perfect out group. It's possible to construct all sort a narratives out of this, so it's far too politically useful to do anything pragmatic. And people who don't know anything about drugs are then entitled to feel superior to those who do them.