I think tradition might be good word to describe it. In Europe people consider amphetamine drug that’s used within all groups while meth is often considered worse than heroin and no one beside hc junkies would consider it. Meth use as it is in USA is enough to make people think twice before using meth as amphetamine or cocaine alternative.
Kinda like in UK ketamine is widely seen as “bad” while in USA it seems that use is much more within psychedelic users and seen as safe. With time average USA user might start to think about K as a bad idea when taking in account time when it was almost legal in UK and steer away from it because of that bad reputation same as now with PCP.
Great assessment, indeed us Americans haven’t quite figured out the dark side of K yet.. Then again we’ve been bitten by alot of drugs yet keep going back. The people that do get problems here hide them out of shame.
-GC