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Period: 1920 BCE to 1933 BCE
Prohibition
The ratification of the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution–which banned the manufacture, transportation and sale of intoxicating liquors–ushered in a period in American history known as Prohibition. The result of a widespread temperance movement during the first decade of the 20th century, Prohibition was difficult to enforce, despite the passage of companion legislation known as the Volstead Act. 1933 came to a close -
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Patent Medicines
Patent medicines originally referred to medications whose ingredients had been granted government protection for exclusivity. In actuality, the recipes of most 19th century patent medicines were not officially patented. Most producers (often small family operations) used ingredients quite similar to their competitors—vegetable extracts laced with ample doses of alcohol. These proprietary, or "quack" medicines could be deadly, since there was no regulation on their ingredients. -
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Marijuana
Marijuana was listed in the United States Pharmacopeia from 1850 until 1942 and was prescribed for various conditions including labor pains, nausea, and rheumatism. Its use as an intoxicant was also commonplace from the 1850s to the 1930s. A campaign conducted in the 1930s by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Narcotics (now the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs) sought to portray marijuana as a powerful, addicting substance that would lead users into narcotics addiction. -
Coca Plant
Coca leaf extract had been used in Coca-Cola products since 1885, with cocaine being completely eliminated from the products on or around 1929.[5][6] Extraction of cocaine from coca requires several solvents and a chemical process known as an acid/base extraction, which can fairly easily extract the alkaloids from the plant. -
Sinclair's The Jungle
The Jungle is a 1906 novel written by the American journalist and novelist Upton Sinclair. Sinclair wrote the novel to portray the harsh conditions and exploited lives of immigrants in the United States in Chicago and similar industrialized cities. Most readers were more concerned with his exposure of health violations and unsanitary practices in the American meatpacking industry during the early 20th century, contributing to outcry which led to reforms including the Meat Inspection Act. -
Pure Food and Drug Act
The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 was the first of a series of significant consumer protection laws enacted by Congress in the 20th century and led to the creation of the Food and Drug Administration. Its main purpose was to ban foreign and interstate traffic in adulterated or mislabeled food and drug products, and it directed the U.S. Bureau of Chemistry to inspect products and refer offenders to prosecutors. -
Harrison Act
The Harrison Narcotics Tax Act (Ch. 1, 38 Stat. 785) was a United States federal law that regulated and taxed the production, importation, and distribution of opiates and coca products. The act was proposed by Representative Francis Burton Harrison of New York and was approved on December 17, 1914. -
Drug Rehab Programs
The phrase, drug treatment, is currently used to refer to treatment for problems with a wide array of substances including both illegal drugs and prescription medications. From the 1950’s through the 1970’s, however, drug treatment programs focused primarily on heroin and other opiates and were operated separately from programs focusing on alcohol. -
Ronald Reagan
On this day in 1982, President Ronald Reagan declared illicit drugs to be a threat to U.S. national security later in 1988, Reagan created the Office on National Drug Control -
Crack Cocaine
Crack cocaine is a free base form of cocaine that can be smoked. It offers a short but intense high. The Manual of Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment calls it the most "addictive" form of cocaine. Crack cocaine is commonly used as a recreational drug. Crack first saw widespread use in primarily impoverished inner city neighborhoods in New York, Los Angeles, and Miami in late 1984 and 1985; its rapid increase in use and availability is sometimes termed as the "crack epidemic -
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The 90's
The presidency of Ronald Reagan marked the start of a long period of skyrocketing rates of incarceration, largely thanks to his unprecedented expansion of the drug war. The number of people behind bars for nonviolent drug law offenses increased from 50,000 in 1980 to over 400,000 by 1997. -
Drug Policies racial and ethinic groups
Drug war makes life unequal upon Racial groups
Makes people of color higher targets by law enforcements