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By claiming idiosyncratic differences you just deny generalizability. However, the UN does not make any difference between countries, but forces the exact same general prohibition policy (the Conventions) on each member state. If the UN was to accept historical and cultural differences, they should immediately give back the right to chew coca leaves to the South American natives, for example! Claiming that the anomalies are only individual cases and not signs of failure in the general policy, is both unsound and double-moral.

Moreover, in your "fruit garden" there should be also successful examples of "historically and culturally different" bananas and pears that had successfully reduced their drug consumption levels by maintaining a strict prohibition policy. I assume Costa can not tell any such countries when asked - he could have already told, if he could. And even though there might be such countries, the cost of the drug war against their own citizens (in terms of human rights violation etc.) would be still morally questionable.