America intentionally exported the War on Drugs. It would sanction and threaten to invade those who didn't want to join. Which is the height of hypocrisy given the CIAs involvement in facilitating the drug trade. A good example is what happened with Noriega in Panama.

A cynical person may think that that the modern war on drugs is intended to increase profits for the CIA for things that they couldn't ask the tax payers for.

An extra cynical person may think that the CIA has found a new and much cleaner way of raising money via the tech startup industry.

But you'd have to be pretty cynical to believe that.

Cannabis played (plays) a part in Hindu rituals/festivals - Bhaang in holi comes to mind.

Guess which country has rules to bend to the war on terror?

Yeah, so they could target communists, black panthers and pacifists :/

Just in case anybody doesn't believe you: http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/23/politics/john-ehrlichman-richa...

Just in case somebody believes you:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_Wars

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_in_Egypt#Ottoman_peri...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_in_Singapore

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Opium_Convention

There are also references of the ban in Turkey and Greece in 1890 everywhere but without good sources.

The above should be enough to realize that that different nations made various drugs illegal without the US influence and without intention to oppress black panthers and communists.

Afaik, countries are often required to (sometimes "unofficially") comply with a variety of US "customs" before various deals (trade, etc) will be signed.

I completely believe that to control the world, you must control people's minds, and to control people's minds, you must control drugs.

Actually drug laws have been used weapons in class warfare before US. While US policies are an obvious example in this continuum, it's not the first example.

The opium trade to China is a good prior example.

[]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_opium_in_China

That's because a "war against $condition" is a useful way to manufacture consent.

All you need is a compliant media and lots of Money to be made to corrupt enough legislators....