> when drug addiction epidemics entered the popular consciousness That certainly isn't correct. The fear of marijuana addiction epidemics was part of the popu

> when drug addiction epidemics entered the popular consciousness That certainly isn't correct. The fear of marijuana addiction epidemics was part of the popular consciousness in the 1930s, pushed in part by Hearst's yellow journalism and Anslinger's propagandizing. We see echos of that fear in the movie "Reefer Madness." The same for heroin. There's even earlier moralizing against opium and opium dens, connected with "yellow peril" xenophobia as ensnaring white people into addiction.