>drugs weren’t used to control colonial possessions, they were normal every day consumer items everywhere in the West too.

It was both and still is both, governments and wealthy "organizations" often connected to governments use drugs both for profit and control. Sonetimes control/benefit works both directions such as financing other "darker" expenses and operations while also destabilizing where they are sold. The CIA was behind the Cocaine/Crack epidemic in the US decades ago. It funded many different operations in the US and other countries, it destabilized and financed coups while also destroying black and other minority communities especially in the inner cities. It fed on the desperation and lack of opportunity.