Hi Chris, prohibition as a path to utopia is a long-running progressive project. Since it was already illegal to assault, rob, defraud or kill people, why did Congress add new prohibition laws? Because progressives wanted to use police/jails to "improve" the behavior of the so-called lower classes. Drug prohibition has created numerous opportunities for authoritarians to generate and fill bureaucracies (FBI, DEA, OCDETF, OFX), corrupt officials to get lots of cash and for people to cash in by selling rehab as an alternative to the punishments that were sold to the public as surefire deterrents. It's quite amazing to read law codes from earlier civilizations which were familiar with opiates, including ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Rome, Catholic Church cannon law, Napoleonic codes and our own Constitution, all without any drug prohibition.