The criminalization of drugs was put in place to target hippies and minorities. So... yes.
"We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did."
- John Ehrlichman, Nixon's Aide during time of the war on drugs.
"We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did."
- John Ehrlichman, Nixon's Aide during time of the war on drugs.
https://harpers.org/archive/2016/04/legalize-it-all/
Aside:
Liberty - the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one's way of life, behavior, or political views.
What the hell ever happened to "give me liberty or give me death"?