It's not prohibition, it's illegal. I love how the pro-drug people use this word when you wouldn't say we have a prohibition on rape, murder, or burglary.
The distinction is important: drug prohibition is a choice, and other societies (including our own society at other times) have made different choices here, often to their benefit.
There isn't much choice about prohibiting rape, murder, burglary -- to have any social order at all, they must be prohibited.
See also the difference between conduct that is malum prohibitum versus that which is malum in se. These legal terms draw a distinction between things that are wrong because a law was chosen (regardless of their harmfulness), versus those things that are inherently wrong/harmful.
Even those who like to ban intoxicants called their period of greatest influence "prohibition", when alcohol was banned. So there are good legal and historical reasons for calling anti-drug-laws "prohibition".
The distinction is important: drug prohibition is a choice, and other societies (including our own society at other times) have made different choices here, often to their benefit.
There isn't much choice about prohibiting rape, murder, burglary -- to have any social order at all, they must be prohibited.
See also the difference between conduct that is malum prohibitum versus that which is malum in se. These legal terms draw a distinction between things that are wrong because a law was chosen (regardless of their harmfulness), versus those things that are inherently wrong/harmful.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malum_prohibitum
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malum_in_se
Even those who like to ban intoxicants called their period of greatest influence "prohibition", when alcohol was banned. So there are good legal and historical reasons for calling anti-drug-laws "prohibition".