If you do a web-search for &quot;marijuana illegal race&quot; you&#x27;ll see many people having this perspective (including <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Race_and_the_War_on_Drugs" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Race_and_the_War_on_Drugs</a>).<p>I&#x27;ve heard the idea of anti-drug laws as dog-whistle politics (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Dog-whistle_politics" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Dog-whistle_politics</a>) from a few people.<p>As far as &quot;evidence&quot; here, I don&#x27;t know what kind is suitable.<p>The 1875 San Francisco Opium Den ordinance law is widely seen as anti-chinese[1]. There&#x27;s certainly historical people, like Harry J Anslinger (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Harry_J._Anslinger#The_campaign_against_marijuana_1930" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Harry_J._Anslinger#The_campaig...</a>) who justified drug prohibition through racist prejudice.<p>The world isn&#x27;t black and white of course, and how much race played in this can&#x27;t be quantified reasonably. However, it&#x27;s safe to say that it&#x27;s non-zero.<p>IMHO, all the war on drugs is doing is inflaming a constant Streisand Effect for drug use. Also, I think that notionally, all drugs would be illegal under the current mindset.  The reason that some are not has less to do with race I believe than it has to do with the billions of dollars alcohol and tobacco has to carve legislation in their favor.[2]<p>--<p>1. California is the starting point for quite a bit of anti-drug legislation. Although now, in 2016, we ostensibly live in relative racial harmony, the state has a notoriously terrible history of regrettable regressive  racialized politics. This completely factual history runs up against most people&#x27;s current perception of the politics of the state.<p>2. It&#x27;s worth noting that when you ban the sale of something, in ways you are creating a more &quot;free&quot; (nominally in the pejorative sense) market then if you sunlight it. If you search &quot;marijuana easier than alcohol&quot; you&#x27;ll see many saying that, for children, pot is easier to buy than beer.  Basically by the state not acknowledging the market, they lose out on the opportunity to influence it.  Prostitution-based STD transmission being much higher in places of illegal prostitution is another supporting argument for this.<p>And finally, in markets such as liquor and tobacco, competing firms don&#x27;t resolve dispute through violent armed gangs of militias cartelling territories like is done through gangs and illicit drugs.  Can you imagine someone working for PBR murdering someone in the competition to gain market penetration?