That would be a valid cause for careful exploration. Instead, what we have is an outright ban and consistent propaganda that "drugs are bad, mmkay?" The logica

That would be a valid cause for careful exploration. Instead, what we have is an outright ban and consistent propaganda that "drugs are bad, mmkay?" The logical next step to "we don't know" is "let's find out", not "EVIL! DON'T TOUCH! GO TO JAIL OTHERWISE!" I think calling the governments of the world "evil" in that respect is very over-simplistic, but it's definitely fair to call them irrational and wrong. Also, this "governments are implied to be evil" reading may be in your own mind - Amber doesn't make that statement, and I didn't get that from the article.