Not really, no.
The history of drug criminalisation is long and complicated, but it is primarily based in racism, colonialism and capitalism. Global prohibition is enforced by Western military and economic force, primarily American.
See this post for some modern events affecting both Australia and the USA:
There’s a good layperson’s history of cannabis criminalisation in this:
http://www.picture-poems.com/hemp/THE-EMPEROR-WEARS-NO-CLOTHES-with-Oz-Suppliment.pdf
That link also has the Australian appendix that outlines the history of it here; starts with Napoleon, ends with Americans. It’s quite a story.
Other drugs have similarly complicated histories of prohibition. Most of the stimulants and narcotics began as over-the-counter drugs, then became prescription drugs, then became street drugs. The reasons for this shift were often not purely medical.
This is a cool book that covers a lot of cocaine history, amongst other things:
This is a fun book for the history of alcohol prohibition (and forensic science):
Excessive drug use can certainly have bad effects. Physical, psychological, social. But with most illegal drugs, the negative effect most commonly associated with them is involvement with criminals and police. Prohibition makes drugs more dangerous, not less.
Legalise, regulate, educate. Which is what almost all academics and health experts in the field have been screaming for decades.
The reasons why people use drugs are many and varied.
The overwhelming majority of users are weekend recreational sorts, who may go off the deep end in times of stress, but are most at risk from drug-affected car accidents and the like.
Add to that another group of middle-aged habitual drinkers/smokers, whose primary risks are long-term health related.
Then there are the fast-burn junkies; usually mentally ill, often abuse survivors, frequently homeless, high risk of overdose and suicide.
The exact motivations of these folks are also varied, but in my experience it frequently has a lot in common with what you see amongst cutters, anorexics and other self-harming disorders. It’s some mix of a destructive drive towards bodily autonomy, a cry for help and a slow-motion suicide attempt.
Yup.
That is what Russell was getting at. He wasn’t saying “drug use is exactly like cancer”; he was taking a limited-by-the-context-of-Twitter swing at “people with drug problems are sick, and punishing them for being ill does not help anything”.
The video itself is actually unusually calm and sensible by Russell Brand standards.