History
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The cultivation, use, and trade of psychoactive and other drugs has occurred since prior to civilization's existence. Religious governments probably began to criminalize drugs' possession and trade in the Middle Ages, and such legislation has continued until the present day, by both religious and non-religious governments. In the 20th century, the United States led a major renewed surge in drug prohibition called the "War on Drugs". Today's War on Drugs bears many similarities to earlier drug laws, particularly in the motivation to prevent drug use.
Motivations claimed by supporters of drug prohibition laws across various societies and eras have included religious observance, allegations of violence by racial minorities, and public health concerns. Those who are not proponents of anti-drug legislation characterize these motivations as religious intolerance, racism, and public healthism.
Read more about this topic: Prohibition Of Drugs
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“In history an additional result is commonly produced by human actions beyond that which they aim at and obtain—that which they immediately recognize and desire. They gratify their own interest; but something further is thereby accomplished, latent in the actions in question, though not present to their consciousness, and not included in their design.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)
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—David Hume (1711–1776)
“A poet’s object is not to tell what actually happened but what could or would happen either probably or inevitably.... For this reason poetry is something more scientific and serious than history, because poetry tends to give general truths while history gives particular facts.”
—Aristotle (384–323 B.C.)