I agree in part of what you are saying in the post above, but want to emphasize the last part. Members of the Mafia dealt in dope long before 1957. Pipelines had been established already in the 1930s. Numerous of made guys had been caught by the authorities in the 1930s and 1940s dealing in drugs and some of them were deported to Italy. Some bosses allowed drug dealing in their Families, some bosses didn´t. At the Apalachin meeting (which was not a Commission meeting but a national meeting with more than 60 participants) a national ban against dope dealing was declared. The Commission had two weeks prior to Apalachin, held a meeting in New Jersey where they had settled the Costello/Genovese beef and named Gambino as provisional boss of Anastasia´s Family. This, with the decision to impose a national drug ban, needed to be addressed to all the bosses around the country. And that is why the Appalachin meeting was held.