What a strange response. When it first got discovered/was first produced, Cocaine was perfectly "legal" (that is, unregulated). Only was made illegal (for general trade and use) around 1920 or so.
Remember, the British State once fought China over Opium. Not, as "these days" one might think, to stop production there or imports/smuggling to Britain - but to force China to drop the legal ban on the stuff they had introduced. Imagine a drug cartel with a superpower's army. And welcome to history lessons.