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DRUG POLICY FROM 1870 - 1970

Back in the late 1800s and early 1900s, many Americans did not realize what
substances were in elixirs they were taking for ailments. Unlike today,
there were no policies that banned medications or listed the ingredients
from the market. Because of the unknown substances that were in many drugs,
Americans felt they needed some guidance and turned to the federal
government for restrictions and policies. Clifford A. Schaffer, director of
DRCNet Online Library of Drug Policy wrote, "The first major regulatory law
was the Pure Food and Drug Act (PFDA) of 1906, (for which) there was
widespread public support. "The PFDA required that contents of foods and
drugs must be listed on the label, that advertising statements must be
true, and that the Food and Drug Administration be established to oversee
the law," Schaffer wrote. "After it was passed, drug addiction dropped
dramatically, primarily because people finally found out what they were
taking. However, it did not make drug possession a crime." In only one
instance prior to the 1906 law was a drug made illegal. "Opium smoking was
first outlawed in San Francisco in the 1870s because of the fear that
Chinese men were luring white women to have sex in opium dens. They did not
outlaw other forms of opium use - only those peculiar to the Chinese
community. The first federal opium law forbade trading in opium by Chinese
but not by whites," Schaffer said. The Harrison Narcotic Act also put
further restrictions on opiates. This act also sparked one of the first
battles between the medical community and the government, said Charlie
Cook, a professor at the University of North Carolina. Besides the opiates,
Schaffer added that cocaine also was a target of the act, and that caffeine
was almost included. In the 1920s and 1930s, more laws were passed
including the Volstead Act of 1919, which was passed by Congress and later
became the Alcohol Prohibition Act of 1920, which was repealed in 1930. The
1937 Marijuana Tax Act, which authorized producers, manufacturers,
importers and distributors to obtain a license and pay a tax also was among
the early laws. In 1970, the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and
Control Act (Controlled Substances Act) was passed, which established
penalties for the possession, manufacturing and distribution of controlled
substances. "Federal funding was increased to help community health centers
and hospitals to treat individuals with drug abuse problems. Control of
drugs was moved from the Treasury Department to the Drug Enforcement
Administration (DEA), and therefore, drugs were regulated directly rather
than through taxes. The act also called for the scheduling of drugs which
were ranked according to their medicinal use and liability of abuse and
their likelihood of producing dependence," said Cook. "The drug prohibition
laws were not the result of a reasoned response to a real problem. Every
major study of the drug laws in the last 100 years has found that the laws
were the product of racism, ignorance, and nonsense, and they just do more
harm than good," Schaffer concluded. The first 100 years of drug policy and
laws set a tone for future policy. However, it has been in recent years
that policy, along with treatment, has become prevalent.