Here's some of that history for you, from the appendix of _Ceremonial
Chemistry_ by Thomas Szasz.
c. 2000 B.C.
Earliest record of prohibitionist teaching, by an Egyptian priest, who
writes to his pupil: "I, thy superior, forbid thee to go to the taverns.
Thou art degraded like beasts." [W.F. Crafts *et al*., *Intoxicating
Drinks and Drugs*, p. 5]
4th century
St. John Chrysostom (345-407), Bishop of Constantinople: "I hear man
cry, 'Would there be no wine! O folly! O madness!'  Is it wine that
causes this abuse?  No, for if you say, 'Would there were no light!'
because of the informers, and would there were no women because of
adultery." [Quoted in Berton Roueche, *The Neutral Spirit*, pp. 150-151]
1493
The use of tobacco is introduced into Europe by Columbus and his crew
returning from America.
17th century
The prince of the petty state of Waldeck pays ten thaler to anyone who
denounces a coffee drinker. [Griffith Edwards, Psychoactive substances,
*The Listener*, March 23, 1972, pp. 360-363; p.361]
17th century
In Russia, Czar Michael Federovitch executes anyone on whom tobacco is
found.  "Czar Alexei Mikhailovitch rules that anyone caught with tobacco
should be tortured until he gave up the name of the supplier."
c. 1650
The use of tobacco is prohibited in Bavaria, Saxony, and in Zurich, but
the prohibitions are ineffective. Sultan Murad IV of the Ottoman Empire
decrees the death penalty for smoking tobacco: "Whereever there Sultan
went on his travels or on a military expedition his halting-places were
always distinguished by a terrible rise in executions.  Even on the
battlefield he was fond of surprising men in the act of smoking, when he
would punish them by beheading, hanging, quartering or crushing their
hands and feed. . . . Nevertheless, in spite of all the horrors and
persecution. . . the passion for smoking still persisted." [Edward M.
Brecher et al., *Licit and Illicit Drugs*, p. 212]
1691
In Luneberg, Germany, the penalty for smoking (tobacco) is death.
1736
The Gin Act (England) is enacted with the avowed object of making
spirits "come so dear to the consumer that the poor will not be able to
launch into excessive use of them." This effort results in general
lawbreaking and fails to halt the steady rise in the consumption of even
legally produced and sold liquor.
1792
The first prohibitory laws against opium in China are promulgated.  The
punishment decreed for keepers of opium shops is strangulation.
1845
A law prohibiting the public sale of liquor is enacted in New York
State.  It is repealed in 1847.
1909
The United States prohibits the importation of smoking opium.  [Lawrence
Kolb, *Drug Addiction*, pp. 145-146]
1914
The Harrison Narcotic Act is enacted, controlling the sale of opium and
opium derivatives, and cocaine.
1919
The Eighteenth (Prohibition) Amendment is added to the U.S.
Constitution.   It is repealed in 1933.
1921
Cigarettes are illegal in fourteen states, and ninety-two anti-cigarette
bills are pending in twenty-eight states. Young women are expelled from
college for smoking cigarettes. [Brecher et al., op. cit. p. 492]
1924
The manufacture of heroin is prohibited in the United States.
1929
About one gallon of denatured industrial in ten is diverted into bootleg
liquor.  About forty Americans per million die each year from drinking
illegal alcohol, mainly as a result of methyl (wood) alcohol poisoning.
1937
Shortly before the Marijuana Tax Act, Commissioner Harry J.  Anslinger
writes: "How many murders, suicides, robberies, criminal assaults,
hold-ups, burglaries, and deeds of maniacal insanity it [marijuana]
causes each year, especially among the young, can only be conjectured."
[Quoted in John Kaplan, *Marijuana*, p. 92]
1937
The Marijuana Tax Act is enacted.
1941
Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek orders the complete suppression of the
poppy; laws are enacted providing the death penalty for anyone guilty of
cultivating the poppy, manufacturing opium, or offering it for sale.
[Lindensmith, *The Addict and the Law*, 198]
1955
The Shah of Iran prohibits the cultivation and use of opium, used in the
country for thousands of years; the prohibition creates a flourishing
illicit market in opium.   In 1969 the prohibition is lifted, opium
growing is resumed under state inspection, and more than 110,000 persons
receive opium from physicians and pharmacies as "registered addicts."
[Henry Kamm, They shoot opium smugglers in Iran, but . . *The New York
Times Magazine*, Feb. 11, 1973, pp. 42-45] 1956 The Narcotics Control
Act in enacted; it provides the death penalty, if recommended by the
jury, for the sale of heroin to a person under eighteen by one over
eighteen. [Lindesmith, *The Addict and the Law*, p. 26]
1967
New York State's "Narcotics Addiction Control Program" goes into effect.
It is estimated to cost $400 million in three years, and is hailed by
Government Rockefeller as the "start of an unending war . . ." Under the
new law, judges are empowered to commit addicts for compulsory treatment
for up to five years. [Murray Schumach, Plan for addicts will open
today: Governor hails start, *The New York Times*, April 1, 1967]
1971
President Nixon declares that "America's Public Enemy No. 1 is drug
abuse."  In a message to Congress, the President calls for the creation
of a Special Action Office of Drug Abuse Prevention.  [The New Public
Enemy No. 1, *Time*, June 28, 1971, p. 18] 1971 on June 30, 1971,
President Cvedet Sunay of Turkey decrees that all poppy cultivation and
opium production will be forbidden beginning in the fall of 1972.
[Patricia M Wald et al. (Eds.), *Dealing with Drug Abuse*, p. 257] 1972
The house votes 366 to 0 to authorize "a $1 billion, three-year federal
attack on drug abuse." [$1 billion voted for drug fight, *Syracuse
Herald-Journal*, March 16, 1972, p. 32]
197?
Operation Intercept.    All vehicles returning from Mexico are checked
by Nixon's order.    Long lines occur and, as usual no dent is made in
drug traffic.
1981
Congress ammends the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act, which forbids the armed
forces to enforce civil law, so that the military could provide
surveillance planes and ships for interdiction purposes.
1984
U.S. busts 10,000 pounds of marijuana on farms in Mexico. The seizures,
made on five farms in an isolated section of Chihuahua state, suggest a
70 percent increase in estimates that total U.S. consumption was 13,000
to 14,000 tons in 1982. Furthermore, the seizures add up to nearly eight
times the 1300 tons  that officials had calculated Mexico produced in
1983.  [the San Francisco Chronicle, Saturday, November 24, 1984]
1985
Pentagon spends $40 million on interdiction.
     So many laws! So much fear and prejudice and hate!
     Effect on drug abuse: zero.
... Have I found God? What, did you lose him AGAIN?
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