Tobacco is shown to cause more deaths, each year, via second hand smoke alone, than every "hard" drug combined. So, why are people okay with tobacco, but not cocaine? Cultural studies shows us that those in power have constructed society to view cocaine as deadly and tobacco as simply harmful, despite the facts. However, in the subculture that participates in cocaine use, the social construction is that cocaine is pleasurable and can be used in the same manner that tobacco is. Becker's article on becoming a pot user supports this claim as well. Becker explains that people would not become pot users if it was not a pleasurable experience. However, Becker further shows that for many people the only way that using pot is a pleasurable experience is to have those who are pot users socially construct that experience for them. Social construction plays an enormous part into how society views drug use and if a majority in society reversed the current social construction then more people would be willing to consider decriminalizing drugs.
Politics also play a major role in why the majority of society is against decriminalizing drugs because not only do those that hold political power have a large hand in social construction, they are also attempting to advance their own ideas over those without power. Those who use these "hard" drugs are considered to be pushing the norms outside of the hegemony. Since they are without power, they have little to no say in the social construction and have even less of an opportunity to advance their ideas. Becker's article also addresses this idea of politics through the subculture of pot users. If those first time pot users were not exposed to the regular pot users, then Becker said that they would most likely not become regular pot users. However, since the regular pot users were there to advance their ideas and use their power to make a social construction, the first time pot users were far more likely to become one of those regular pot users. When you take Becker's idea of politics and apply it to non-drug users, you see that non-drug users manipulate facts to advance their ideas about "hard" drug use onto the rest of society, who do not know the facts about "hard" drug use.
If it were not for the social construction that has convinced our society that "hard" drugs are extremely bad and dangerous and the politics that allow the majority of society to advance those views, then people would be able to look at the issue of decriminalizing drugs through a much less biased lens because they would look at the facts themselves instead of relying on our culture to show them what to think.
You make a very interesting point with how social construction affects the "norm" response to drug use. Another thing to consider might be the actual symptoms of being high on hard drugs vs smoking tobacco. For example, a person smoking may be harmful to his organs and others around him, but his mental state is not hindered, he won't go crazy because he's tripping out. Meth users for example can be very harmful while they are on a high because of the type of high it causes (temper tantrums, paranoia, violence). While it is hard to monitor such a widely disputed activity like drug use, immediate safety is probably considered over something like total death tolls in the end in making these laws.
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