(or are they? have I been disinfo'd?)
I am of the opinion that the drug war is evil: cops and jails ruining someone's life because of a recreational activity. And the evidence shows it does more harm than good, not stuff I have to go over again.
But DPRK and China are harsh on drugs, not sure about Cuba.
What's up with that?
First counterargument that comes to my mind is a lot of capitalist countries are very harsh on drugs as well, like the very capitalist Singapore, so you couldn't draw a correlation. What other counterarguments should a comrade consider?
I'm not particularly knowledgeable about the subject, but I think alcohol abuse/addiction was a widespread problem in the late Soviet Union. It would not surprise me if current AES states recognize that problem from history and are attempting to prevent something similar from happening.