Looking at the whims of government with such a non-critical eye is frightening to me. The actions of government should not be trusted at face value and examined critically.
Moneyed interests, particularly in the petroleum and chemical industries leveraged the paranoias of the Puritanical elements to conduct a wildly successful smear campaign on a most beneficial plant.
Those same Puritanical elements have also established dry jurisdictions where alcohol is not available.
