(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?
What do you think the US response to Cuba would be if they legalized the cultivation of drugs? More or less unhinged than our response to FARC or the Cartels in Mexico?
I would guess in resource starved countries they don't want to add any more problems than they already have with more drug use, and any place that is suffering from poverty and scarcity will be ripe for problematic drug use.
On top of that the US has been using it's financial leverage to lead anti-drug efforts worldwide since at least Nixon or whatever. If there was a history of indigenous use for certain drugs there can be push back or tolerance, but they risk sanctions and a violent US response.
Socially conservative places that place high value on tradition will keep up drug laws for anything they aren't familiar with long past the point where it makes any sense.
I'm absolutely shooting from the hip here but: I also wonder if Cuba has arable land, fertilizer, and workers to spare on growing drug crops, as opposed to food?