History of drug use and legislation

By Georgia Sarantinoudis

  • Union Temperance Society established and make a move toward alcohol prohibition.

  • American Temperance Union, Movement was divided, moderation or abstinence?

  • - opposition to alcohol intertwined w/nativism movement, a thinly veiled reaction to minority groups. -Prohibitionist were typically rural white Protestants antagonistic to minority groups.

  • Prohibition Party attempts to make alcohol a national issue with only limited success.

  • Bill introduced to congress for national food and drug regulation. Patent Medications came when people see rise in addiction, Patent meds contained Opiates and Cocaine. Patenting remedies would have to publicly disclose ingredients.

  • time of feel-good pharmacology, based off coca plant & derivatives, used for everything from headaches to hysteria. Patent medicines used significant amounts of cocaine.

  • Congress bans importation of opium by Chinese, let’s Americans continue.

  • -Coca-Cola with cocaine, parts of coca plant still used for flavor coke today.

  • -Native Races Act, prohibits sale of alcohol & opiates to “aboriginal tribes & other uncivilized races.” Later expands to “uncivilized elements” in the U.S.

  • -cocaine is introduced into medicine, continues to this day.

  • -Pure Food and Drug Act comes about after Upton Sinclair’s novel The Jungle, exposing unsafe conditions of meat industry. Act forces medicines to list certain drugs and their amounts including alcohol and opiates.

  • -Revival of the prohibitionist movement.

  • - Harrison Act made any person in business of dealing drugs register annually & pay special tax. Statue made it illegal to sell or give away opium & coca derivatives w/out written order by commissioner of revenue.

  • - Nativism and prohibition fueled rise in the Ku Klux Klan, KKK spread into Northern U.S.

  • - Ratification of 18 th amendment, outlaws manufacture and sale of alcohol in U.S. Prohibition becomes federal law.

  • -Volstead Act strengthens langue of ratification on 18 th amendment, defines intoxicating beverages anything above 0.5%

  • -Prohibition Bureau was created employing agents, many corrupt public menaces.

  • -Congress defines cocaine as a narcotic and prohibits importation of most cocaine and coca leaves.

  • -N.Y. statue lists coca plant, opium and cannabis products as habit forming drugs to be regulated.

  • Period: to

    86 Federal agents and 200 civilians killed due to Prohibition Bureau agents, many innocents.

  • -every state restricts sale of cocaine.

  • -22 states have marijuana legislation as part of general-purpose statute against narcotics.

  • -hysterical anti-marijuana literature is produced. Reefer Madness etc.

  • -Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 due to uncertainty over federal government not knowing if they will be able to outlaw it. Act placed $100 fine for an Ounce instead of prohibiting.

  • -Bogg’s Act, Penalties for possession of marijuana increase along with other controlled substances.

  • Period: to

    -Changing attitudes

    Medical profession reasserts itself on drug use in treatment and research. Psych, social work, sociology & public health focus on drug issue as social problem not only law enforcement. CA gets civil commitment program, addicts taken into custody are committed and treated for addiction followed by aftercare and parole. Congress passes Narcotic Rehab Act, voluntary/involuntary mandate to rehab & post hospitalization programs for addicts.

  • -Marijuana accepted in middle class, leads to scientific inquiry into Marijuana. Marijuana penalties significantly reduced, Oregon 1 st to decriminalize marijuana, 11 states decriminalize by 1978.

  • Period: to

    New form of cocaine, crack becomes popular in many cities. “Crack use was centered in those populations in which drug use has always been endemic: the “urban underclass.”

  • -Psychiatry establishes Academy of Addiction Psychiatry.

  • -Ronald Reagan presidency, drugs become a major political issue again. T.V. “Just Say No” commercials.

  • -rapid expansion of crack use stopped.

  • War on drugs becomes the presidential campaign.

  • Straight Outta Compton released

  • -American Medical Association admits American Society of Addiction Medicine.

  • AMA adds addiction medicine to list of specialties.

  • Period: to

    Mainstream

    Officials recognize prison overcrowding, results in state & federal drug policies, administrative remedies made place drug offenders in treatment programs & on probation/parole. Government begins to focuses on prescription drug problem. Marijuana still readily available. Cocaine still dominant, crack not a huge epidemic anymore. Heroin begins to become the greater issue.

  • Addiction psychiatry becomes a board recognized subspecialty.