Drugs caused problems back when they were legal, no doubt about it. People would get hopped up, get into fights, and kill each other. Money that should have gone into feeding the family went for drugs. There was lost productivity, sickness, poverty and despair from the drugs. Worse, some Un-American Cultures valued them as part of their traditions, daily life, or even religion, and we couldn't have those Un-American Cultures free to do whatever they wanted in America.
So we banned the drugs.
Of course, the ban didn't work. A lot of soldiers coming home from the War had become addicted overseas, and they weren't going to quit getting high. Rich people still had to have the proper drugs for parties, or for their private use; if caught, they'd get a slap on the wrist or go into rehab, while the government would throw the dealers into jail forever if caught. So the prisons filled up with people who weren't guilty of any violent crime.
Of course, violent crime came along soon enough. You had gangs with machine guns killing each other for territory, for profit, in the end perhaps even for fun. That was OK. Who cared if a few thugs who weren't like Us, the average Protestant Middle Class Us, went around killing each other? But the violence grew, and bystanders innocent and otherwise started to go down in the hail of machine-gun fire too.
The decade was the 1920s. The drug was alcohol. They called it the Prohibition Era.
Any parallels I might draw with conditions in other decades might get me in trouble with people, especially the Religious Reich, so I guess I just ain't gonna draw any parallels. Although I think it might be good if SOMEBODY higher up did.
So we banned the drugs.
Of course, the ban didn't work. A lot of soldiers coming home from the War had become addicted overseas, and they weren't going to quit getting high. Rich people still had to have the proper drugs for parties, or for their private use; if caught, they'd get a slap on the wrist or go into rehab, while the government would throw the dealers into jail forever if caught. So the prisons filled up with people who weren't guilty of any violent crime.
Of course, violent crime came along soon enough. You had gangs with machine guns killing each other for territory, for profit, in the end perhaps even for fun. That was OK. Who cared if a few thugs who weren't like Us, the average Protestant Middle Class Us, went around killing each other? But the violence grew, and bystanders innocent and otherwise started to go down in the hail of machine-gun fire too.
The decade was the 1920s. The drug was alcohol. They called it the Prohibition Era.
Any parallels I might draw with conditions in other decades might get me in trouble with people, especially the Religious Reich, so I guess I just ain't gonna draw any parallels. Although I think it might be good if SOMEBODY higher up did.