I agree that the problem of abuse isn't limited to any one substance, but the general problem has been around at least as long as humans have walked upright. It's not limited to our current society at all.
The problem in our current society is one of "control" in which some substances that lend themselves to abuse are legalized (and in the case of tobacco actually subsidized) by governments, while others are outlawed, with such nonsense as the unwinnable "war on drugs" as a result.
The late John W. Campbell, longtime editor of Astounding/Analog Science Fiction magazine and an outspoken rabble rouser (among other things, he published the first report about dianetics, which led to creation of the Church of Scientology, but I don't hold that mistake against him), had what I consider to be the most elegant solution: remove all regulation and restrictions on such substances, allowing unlimited access to one and all. His reasoning was that the most hopeless addicts would OD and thus remove themselves from the gene pool, while criminals would no longer be able to profit from being the sole source of supply! In the same article, he also advocated allowing anyone to practice medicine, including surgery, with no oversight or controls, on the theory that the incompetent would quickly become obvious and go out of business while the competent would enjoy unfettered success. Obviously he had not visited a sewage plant and observed what rises to the top of the vat there, and had managed to underestimate the gullibility of the average person...
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