I've seen poppies growing wild from northern Canada to Florida.
I'll give The Rabbi the benefit of the doubt, and simply point out that in a legalized situation, the crops will tend to be grown in ideal locations for maximum profit potentials. IE low labor cost Afghanistan might be a good source. Then again, it wouldn't take too many farms dedicating an acre or so to provide plenty of production, even if greenhoused.
There was widespread use of opiates until maybe the 1870s. 1890s at the latest. The country has changed radically since then. And all those people are dead.
But even opiates never occupied the same place as liquor, in part because people did not make their opium as poppies are hard to grow in some climates. So while you could maybe make a valid comparison on drugs/alcohol in the 1890s, today it isnt the case.
But there are many valid comparison points.
Don't you think that many people started drinking under prohibition? Do you think that most speakeasies bothered to check age/not sell to minors?
Ways current drug prohibitions are similar to alcohol prohibitions:
1. Mobs -> Gangs
2. Increased Police power and corruption
3. Massive enforcement costs
4. Loss of tax revenue
5. Increased use of more dangerous drugs as compared to an unrestricted market(Liquer -> Meth)
6. Loss of reasonably safe products (Moonshine w/methanol -> drugs cut with unsafe substances)
7. Increased crime due to organized criminal elements defending and attacking territory, enforcing their own brand of justice
How is it
not similar, The Rabbi?