Is the prohibition of opiates also rooted in racism, like the prohibitions of cocaine and cannabis by white supremacists?

The prohibition of opiates in the United States was not primarily rooted in racism, although there were certainly racial overtones to the early anti-drug campaigns. The criminalization of opiates was motivated by a combination of factors, including concerns about addiction, the rise of the medical profession and a desire to regulate the use of drugs, and moral panics about the dangers of drug use.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, there was growing concern about the abuse of opiates, including opium and morphine, which were widely available and widely used as medicinal drugs. At the same time, there was a growing movement to regulate and restrict the use of drugs, and this led to the passage of the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act in 1914, which effectively banned the non-medical use of opiates in the United States.

While racism and anti-immigrant sentiments played a role in the broader temperance movement and the push to restrict drug use, the specific prohibition of opiates was not primarily driven by these factors. However, the early anti-drug campaigns did stereotype certain groups, such as Chinese immigrants, as being more prone to drug use, and this helped to contribute to a broader cultural perception of drug users as being lower-class and morally suspect.

Overall, while racism and anti-immigrant sentiments certainly played a role in the broader cultural context surrounding the prohibition of opiates, the specific criminalization of the drug was motivated by a complex array of factors, including concerns about addiction, the rise of the medical profession, and moral panics about drug use.