I am not clear on how an article that does not overtly tie race to drug use or policy is in any way supportive of the notion that the historical record does not contain supportive evidence of a link between race and drug policy in the United States. This article also does not mention escalators but I would not submit it to further a claim that there is no historical evidence of them existing.
I didn't suggest that there is no supportive evidence between race and drug policy, but that fact does not imply that there is a causal relationship in this case. Citing Nixon era documents to describe pre-WWI circumstances is evidence at least as poor as that which I presented.
The article itself cites in the first paragraph this much more detailed analysis of the topic, which may provide the historical context that you felt was lacking.
Thank you for this reference. I had overlooked it.
While this article confirms my assertion that whites were the majority of drug users, the drug of choice is stated to have been racially segregated (with whites preferring opiates).
Based on this, I'll accept (pending further research) that the southern bans on cocaine were racially motivated. I'd still consider the 1914 federal ban on a wider swath of drugs to be less so.
I’m not sure why someone would pick the 1914 ban as being uniquely not racially influenced. That seems arbitrary and could mostly only be backed up by not reading about it.
The main difference between the 1914 ban and previous actions was the degree of added emphasis put on caricatures of Chinese people.
