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Most of the modern problems, as well as the benefits, resulting from drug use are the outcome of scientific and technological progress. Excluding distilled spirits, the first addictive ingredient isolated from a natural product was morphine, which was extracted from crude opium by F.W.A. Serturner, a German pharmacist, in 1806. Increasingly widespread use of morphine, which constitutes roughly 10 percent of crude opium, revolutionized pain control.
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One of the first careful studies of morphine addiction was made in 1875 by Levinstein, who identified key elements in opiate addiction that would interest researchers: the fixation on the drug that made it the highest priority even when the user's life situation was deteriorating, and the curious phenomenon of withdrawal that could be reversed quickly by giving more opiate (Levinstein, 1878).
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Soon, however, this situation changed dramatically. Around the time of World War I, extensive drug use in the United States—a combination of morphine, heroin, opium, and cocaine—created a growing fear of drug abuse. The association of opium with Chinese immigrants, cocaine with African Americans, and morphine addiction with careless physicians prompted more and more restrictive legislation and an antagonism to easy access to those drug.
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Regulations associated with the Harrison Act and promulgated by the U.S. Treasury Department in 1915 indicated that the maintenance of nonmedical addicts on narcotics to avoid withdrawal would not be considered legitimate medical practice. The federal government then began to use the act to prosecute doctors who issued prescriptions for that purpose. IN 1919, the Supreme Court ratified the federal government's interpretation of the laws.
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Drug abuse research in the 1920s seems to have been at a relatively low level of activity. The Public Health Service (PHS) produced some estimates of the number of addicts and general statements on the nature and treatment of drug users. Perhaps the chief scientific contribution of that decade was the demonstration of morphine dependence in monkeys.
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The era from World War I through 1960 had seen a loss of faith in the possibility of successfully treating narcotics addicts. Dr. Alexander Lambert, a leading advocate of addiction treatment since 1909, exemplified this trend with his abandonment in 1920 of the "cure" he had advocated for 11 years. Federal drug policy became concentrated on narcotics control through law enforcement, and prevention and treatment were deemphasized. However, this trend began to decline with time.
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With the exception of studies on alcoholism, foundation support for drug abuse research did not emerge until the 1960s and 1970s, when changing use patterns made drug abuse a subject of national concern. The Ford Foundation had been receiving requests for support for drug abuse research since the 1950s, but not until 1968 did it award its first grant—$17,500 for a conference to discuss the possible role of the foundation.
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The transformation, especially in marijuana use, was associated with social and political turmoil, including the deep fissures caused by the Vietnam War, the civil rights movement, and the "baby boom" generation approached maturity. Congress responded by enacting the Comprehensive Drug Abuse and Control Act of 1970. This act attempted to deal with the growing wave of drug use by making penalties, especially for marijuana possession, less severe and more flexible.
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The commission's first report, Marihuana: A Signal of Misunderstanding (NCMDA, 1972), recommended "decriminalization" as a response to the widespread use of marijuana. Although dealing the drug would be still prohibited, users would no longer be subject to criminal punishment. This proposal was disavowed by President Nixon but influenced a number of state laws in the 1970s.
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Prescription drug abuse has reached an epidemic level in the United States. The prevalence of prescription drug abuse escalated rapidly beginning in the late 1990s, requiring a significant increase in research to better understand the nature and treatment of this problem.
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The number of teens dying of heroin overdose skyrocketed in the 2000’s. In 1999, 198 people between the ages of 15 and 24 died of a heroin overdose, compared to 510 deaths in 2009. The number of teens seeking treatment for heroin addiction rose 80 percent in the same 10 year time frame.
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Due to the rapid growth of the Internet, designer drug sales grew rapidly in the 90s and 2000s. These drugs were sometimes referred to as “research drugs” or “research chemicals” to avoid the U.S. drug laws, but this did not prevent the DEA from making arrests.
Anabolic steroids also became popular during this time. These drugs were used by many athletes because they were unable to be tracked due to lack of information about the drug and the inability of drug tests to identify the new agents. -
Due to the Internet and other methods of communication, the 2000s have seen the growth of designer drugs outside of opioids, hallucinogens, and steroids. Some “legal” alternatives to cannabis have been created from sister plants and those of similar construction. It is important to note that none of these research chemicals have been properly tested for their safety.