Why is China even harsher with their drug laws than America? Why is Sweden, perhaps one of the most egalitarian European countries, stricter than most of the E

Why is China even harsher with their drug laws than America? Why is Sweden, perhaps one of the most egalitarian European countries, stricter than most of the EU? I mean sure, some of the domestic American situation is like that. The disparate penalties for cocaine and crack cocaine come to mind. Reminds me a bit of alcohol prohibition. Alcohol consumption was through the roof. It was a real social problem. The weight of the "solution" was borne on the backs of the working class persecuted by the law and people who got gunned down in mob violence. While the middle class got booze prescribed by their doctors, and the elites were of course above the law. But that wasn't exactly the intent of the temperance movement. A lot of perfectly intelligent, worldly and moral people support some degree of drug criminalization because they believe they're more harmful than the prohibition side effects. No conspiracy there.