The unsuccessful record results largely from the United States lack of attention to the distinct economic, political, and social conditions of Latin America. As a result, the efforts of the United States often appeared to Latin American governments as the intrusion of an aggressive alien society and to the Indians and mestizos living in narcotics-growing areas as continuing encroachments on their longstanding lifestyles. In addition, the strident antidrug campaigns during the first six decades of this century served to aggravate the cultural conflict generated by United States government policies. The drug reformers ignored the causes of addiction within the United States, building on deep nativistic tendencies in the nation's tradition and justifying punitive legislation, including the Harrison Narcotics Act of 1914. Through the 1960's, these reformers continued the earlier pattern of linking ethnic and foreign elements with drug trafficking and failed to recognize that the nature of American society was the reason so many Americans began using drugs.