Religious and social taboos might have helped as well. > have successfully stopped nearly all drug use and trade with heavy-handed policies. Like Indonesia fo

Religious and social taboos might have helped as well. > have successfully stopped nearly all drug use and trade with heavy-handed policies. Like Indonesia for instance? It has one of the strictest drug laws in the world supposedly. Yet 70% of the people imprisoned in the country were convicted of drug related crimes. They had this policy for many years, yet this is what their president said a few years back: On July 21, 2017, Jokowi stated that Indonesia was in a state of emergency due to widespread drug use, consequently instructing law enforcement officers that “if [narcotics suspects] resist a little bit, just shoot them immediately.” Which would that their strict policies, far from having stopped nearly all drug trade and consumption, were a complete failure. Also around 2% of all people in the country are active drug users. > but it did work So no, it didn’t > but it’s intellectually dishonest to say that it can’t work Yes. Theoretically if you imprison or shot every drug user fast enough and your police force is not thoroughly corrupt it might work. Not sure both of these things can ever be compatible in practice, though. *https://ppid.bnn.go.id/konten/unggahan/2020/10/Drug-Abuse-Prevalence-Survey-2019.pdf https://ppid.bnn.go.id/konten/unggahan/2020/10/Drug-Abuse-Pr...