Note: targeted at minorities by minorities.
The African American community was hugely supportive of the "War on Drugs", until it became clear that it wasn't helping.
But seriously, in the 1960s through 1990s, plenty of powerful African American politicians supported the War on Drugs. http://prisontime.org/files/2013/07/oberia-dempsey-war-on-dr... . The "War on Drugs" was built with huge support from the African American community, we Americans as a whole thought it would be good for us.
It was believed that the white man oppressed African Americans through the use of drugs. Therefore, by declaring the war on drugs, the Black man would become freer. Things didn't turn out that way :-(
Today, the "War on Drugs" is clearly not helping. Eric Holder / President Obama ordered the FBI / Justice Department to go easier against drug offenders.
So it is clear to our current leaders (as well as African American leaders) that we need to end the "War on Drugs".
You are talking about a much later stage, when the power dynamic was one of entrenched power.
I do think it is important to remember that the African American community was pretty happy with the inception of the "War on Drugs" however.
In the USA. And the rest of the world inherited that for free. Which is kind of sad actually, living by other people ideosyncrasies.
Cannabis (and pretty much every psychoactive drugs except alcohol) is prohibited in almost every countries in the world. Isn't it a bit simplistic to think that oppressing minorities was the only reason behind it?
Do you have a "when" in mind there? Cannabis has a colorful history in the USA, and it does not seem like its entire history has been centered on "suppressing the Other". To my knowledge it was originally regulated as a part of the opium/narcotics laws that swept the world in the early 1900's.
Cannabis prohibition, on the other hand, has historically been targeted explicitly at minorities (and later expanded as a way to scare young people out of counter-cultures). In a sense, it has been extremely effective at its intended goal: systematic oppression of The Other. (The fact that early demonization of marijuana was intertwined with fears of white women being seduced by jazz culture or raped by "reefer madness" also signals an evo-psych component: removing competitor males from the gene pool by locking up as many black men as possible.)
In addition to reducing undue U.S. interference with other countries' affairs, legalization is badly needed at home to reduce the prison population and address the racial injustices of the legal system.