[jollybean]

It's even simpler: Heroin is really a terrible thing and should have been criminalized much earlier, and weed is an 'on the fence' substance which was made illegal in most of the Western world, not just the USA (inc. Vietnam, Brazil, Japan, Soviet Union etc.), thereby throwing to the wind your ridiculous conspiracy theories, and suggesting it was a broad civilizational issue that we are adjusting over time.

[exq]

I don't know anything about Vietnam or Brazil, but the Japanese had cultivated hemp for thousands of years and it only became illegal in 1948 during the US occupation.

[exq]

If weed is an "on the fence" substance, alcohol should be illegal.