The missionaries had recourse to the state legislature and cactus eating was forbidden. Between the turn of the century and the first world war these laws were generalized to all states of the Union and to all substances, including alcohol. The Americans adopted the Prohibition in response to a strong but atavistic religious lobby for whom all intoxicants were direct competitors for control over the minds of men. It is thus not surprising that a strong moral stricture has been applied to drugs. In response politicians have cravenly pandered to the demagogic demands of the Prohibition, retreating before populist pressures down the path of least resistance behind more and more prohibitionist measures.
Drug addicts are therefore but a small fraction of the totality of drug users.
All we would see of alcohol use would be the experimenting teenage 'lager-louts' and the sad, alcoholic derelicts in the gutter, for all socialized, recreational use would become clandestine. There would be a strong tendency also, for economic reasons, to use the most concentrated form of the drug to avoid detection. By contrast, alcohol injecting is seldom seen now because beer and wine are available. Similarly, heroin injecting and cocaine injecting would all but disappear if opium to smoke and coca to chew were allowed. If the legal supply is too lax we get the problems now seen with alcohol and tobacco.