Thank prohibitionists for reining in drugs

Re: Sept. 9 article, “Unintended targets: How pain patients suffer in the opioid crisis.”

It is hard to believe that before 1900, Americans could go to a pharmacy and buy opium — and nobody thought much about it. The prohibitionists have been so successful in demonizing drugs that it seems inconceivable that we could ever return to that. There would be addiction, but it would be a straightforward medical problem, not the craziness we have now.