Ancient plants forbidden

Prohibitionist wave of the Twentieth Century
D.Anton
The «witch hunt» of consumers of psychoactive substances, resumed in the United States during the period commonly called «Prohibition». During that time, which lasted from about 1915 to 1932, the government tried to restrict the consumption of alcoholic beverages.

By limiting or prohibiting the production and marketing of liquors, a crackdown was carried out that led to the emergence of organized groups dedicated themselves to meet the alcohol demands of the population by any means.
These bands kept the state itself in check for several years, until the ban was lifted.
At the same time, the world central societies in Europe and North America concentrated their energies on pursuing internal ideological opponents.
A racist and authoritarian fever invaded Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Francoist Spain, and then spread to the United States under the McCarthy campaign. As a result the resources were concentrated expanding the police jurisdiction and power  for several decades to come.
Once it was found that the alleged subversive enemy had reduced its influence, particularly after the fall of the «Eastern Bloc», the elites of the central countries, particularly the United States, set about finding a new target for their «idle» repressive forces.
Again, as in the times of the Holy Office, they found it in the production, trafficking and consumption of certain psychoactive substances.
In that way several psychoactive plants and compounds were banned and stigmatized, among them, poppy, opium and its derivatives, cannabis (marijuana), coca and cocaine, LSD, ecstasy and many other compounds, with the property of modifying the state of consciousness of individuals..
The new witch hunters barricaded themselves behind government and police offices, travelled in jets and helicopters, had almost unlimited budgets and virtually assured impunity.

Meanwhile, many ordinary people, people who just wanted to satisfy their demands of those substances, some of them ancient and sacred, were forced to  obtain them from «illegal» sources risking persecution and arrest.
The old logic of the Inquisition still continues, but now with a more subtle propaganda and plentiful means.
From: "Peoples, Drugs and Serpents", Danilo Anton, Piriguazu Ediciones.