The opium wall is a great example of how a stigmatized notion of a drug can be used as a weapon, and wielded as a weapon when there really is no rational basis for it. We see that today where people fail to make the distinction between drug use, drug harms and adiction. Those are three very important, separate issues. And in most political initiatives in the states and in the uk, conflate them very, very readily,. so that the notion of drugs as irreversibly powerful, automatically addicting is a justification for much more deep seated criminal legal policies and other forms of oppression.