Historical Overview of Drug use
in America (and around the world)
(See: Drugs
in American Society, 5th, 6th, and 7th editions, Erich Goode, McGraw-Hill,
1999/2005/2008. Chapter 4)
Long
History of Drug Use in Human Societies
- ETOH:
10,000 years
- Coca: Thousand's
of years
- Marijuana:
over 10,000 years
- Peyote: Pre-Columbian
Drug
Use is a Cultural Universal
- Only
Inuit Eskimos have no record of traditional Drug use
- And, this
changed when contact with Europeans was established
- Most, if not
all, societies integrate drug use into accepted, sometimes ritualistic, cultural
patterns of behavior
- Drug use seems
to be a vital part of everyday social interaction
Use
of Psychoactive Substances is MASSIVE in Modern Society
- Over
2.4 billion prescriptions are written in the USA each year@$100 billion
- OTC Sales
(USA) @$15 billion
- Over 50% of
Americans report having used Alcohol (etoh) within the past month (current
NHSDUH)
- About 25%
of Americans smoke cigarettes (multiple times a day)
- About 40%
of Americans have tried marijuana (2006 NHSDU, http://www.oas.samhsa.gov/NSDUH/2k6NSDUH/tabs/Sect1peTabs1to46.htm#Tab1.1B)
and the World Drug Report suggests 42%.
- 55.9%
(down .4% from 1997 and still up 8.3% from 1991) H.S. seniors report lifetime
use of Marijuana, 37.8% report use in the past year, and 23.1% report past
month use. Current MTF
- About 6% of
Americans have used marijuana in the last month (~15,600,000 people)
- Illicit drug
trade = ~$40-100 billion dollars annually in USA
- Legal drugs
generate far higher
profits
Drug
Use Prior to the Twentieth Century
Medicine
and Medicinal Drug Use in the 19th Century
Primitive Techniques
- Limited access to drugs
(opiates were the primary source of pain management, when available). Alcohol
was also commonly used. In particular, the use of opiates masked the symptoms
of most illnesses, providing the false impression of curing.
- Brutal surgeries and amputations
(no antiseptic technique). Ignaz
Semmelweis (Hungarian physician) advocated hand washing to prevent spread
of infections in the 1850s. His work was ignored until the 1890s.
- "Patent
Medicines" (see more)
- Opium, Morphine, Marijuana,
and Cocaine widely available.
Innovations
Users
- No accurate data
- Estimates of narcotic
"addicts" in 1900 range from 100,000-500,000. Best estimates 250,000
(Musto) and 313,000 (Courtwright). (US population: 76,200,000): .4%. Today
(2003), population 12 years and older: 237,000,000. Two percent report past
month non-medical use of any pain reliever, .05% report past month use of
heroin.
- User Groups:
- Medical/quasi-medical
use: white, middle aged, middle class, women (largest group)
- Opium smokers (Chinese
immigrants)
- Criminal Sub-culture
(morphine)
- Cocaine users: 80,000
Early Legislation
- Opium Control and Chinese
Immigrants
- Railroad and gold
- Economic change and
growing prejudice
- 1875: San Francisco
passes anti-opium legislation
- 1882: Chinese Exclusion
Act (banned immigration for 10 years)
- 1909: Opium Exclusion
Act
- Pure
Food and Drug Act
- Concerns over patent
medicines (popular magazines)
- Upton Sinclar's The
Jungle, 1906.
- Congress passes act
to ban interstate commerce in adulterated or misbranded food or drugs.
- Passing the act created
the Food
and Drug Administration (FDA)
- Did not ban patent medicine
or other drugs, merely required labeling, and government oversight. There
was no focus on safety or effectiveness of medicinal compounds, either.
- FDA
Today
- Shanghai Commission (The
International Opium Commission), 1909
- Opium
Wars and trade with China (huge market)
- US possession of The
Philippines (1898) following the Spanish-American War: banned opium in 1905
(chinese residents) and 1908 (all residents).
- Growing concern over
the opium trade.
- Thirteen countries meet.
US delegation (Dr.
Hamilton Wright: "father of American narcotic laws") presents
information on the dangers of narcotics.
- Wright drafts a bill
(Foster bill) to regulate opiates, cannabis, cocaine, etc.) here in the
US.
- Hague Conference (International
Conference on Opium) convenes in 1911. Again the US pushes for stricter
controls (although none existed in the US).
- Afterwards, push is
on to enact domestic laws--The Harrison Act.
- See, "THE
HISTORY OF LEGISLATIVE CONTROL OVER OPIUM, COCAINE, AND THEIR DERIVATIVES"
by David Musto
- Harrison
Act, 1914: "the single most important piece of drug legislation ever
enacted in the United States." (Goode, 2005, page 97)
- Aftermath:
- Narcotic
Maintenance Clinics (1918-1923)
- 30,000 physicians
arrested between 1914-1938
- Narcotic addiction
became a criminal offense.
- Emergence/solidification
of a criminal subculture (starts prior to Harrison Act)
- David Courtwright:
decline in narcotic addiction occurred between 1895 and 1915 based on
voluntary changes in the way physicians managed patients. This led to
a proportional increase in the underworld addict population, and following
the Harrison Act, and the criminalization, led to the solidification
of the heroin using addict subculture (Congress passed a bill in 1924
specifically banning heroin: Heroin Act). "Junkie" comes from
the junk collecting activity of NYC addicts in the 1920s--their method
of supporting themselves.
- Alcohol
Prohibition Movement (alcohol
laws today)
- Marijuana
Tax Act
- Nixon and the Controlled
Substances Act (Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act)
- Supercedes all previous
drug legislation.
- Commission on Marijuana
and Drug Abuse 1972-1973
- Thirty
Years of America's Drug War (from PBS)
Nixon's Presidency
- Only president to focus
on treatment and prevention (budget 1/3 supply, 2/3 demand)
- Dole and Nyswander: Methadone
Maintenance
- Dr.
Jerome Jaffe (early methadone advocate, Illinois)--national
policy
- Law and order: crime rate
increase and presidential secretary's purse snatching. Egil
Krogh, Mr. "Fix-It."
- Robert
DuPont: another methadone advocate
- Vietnam and heroin addiction
(~4% versus 10%). Drug Urinalysis Testing
- Nixon/Jaffe: SAODAP (1971):
$155 million, $105 for treatment. "War on Drugs." (demand-side)
- 1972: $35 million to Turkey--stop
poppy production (also spraying marijuana in Mexico with herbicide, Paraquat)
- "French
Connection." Crime down, heroin supplies low. Mexico, SE Asia, Iran,
and Afghanistan enter supply chain.
- 1973/1974: Federal anti-drug
budget $600 million (8x increase. addicts in treatment: over 80,000
- Rockefeller in NY:
harsh laws--focus on punishment
- Nixon pushes for similar
federal laws. March 1973: The Heroin Trafficking Act.
- May 1973: BNDD--DEA.
- Alcohol, Drug Abuse,
and Mental Health Administration (ADAMHA) created to coordinate federal
research and treatment.
- Methadone program
doing well, but public opinion moving towards punishment
- Jaffee resigns, Dupont
dismantles SAODAP (geography--SAODAP was close to White House, NIDA, far
away)
- 1972-1974: Watergate,
Nixon resigns (not much thought on drug policy)
- Ford takes office. Not
much concern. Methadone funding declines. White
Paper on Drug Abuse (can't eliminate drugs, but can reduce harm:
ignored)
- Shift to enforcement
activities. Budget: 50/50
- Start of massive increase
in incarcerations.
The Carter/Reagan-Bush
Years (1977-1992)
- Carter: Liberal, popular
- Peter
Bourne: Drug Advisor (treatment oriented, worked with Jaffee)
- Marijuana decriminalization
movement
- 1976-1977: Schuchard
family incident. Dupont shifts to hard-line
- National opinion shifting--"parent's
Movement" formed
- Reverses opinion on
marijuana, it becomes the new target: Mexico
and Paraquat (scroll to middle of linked page)
- 1978: Bourne "busted"
(quaalude prescription and cocaine at NORML
party (2/3 down)). "Zero-tolerance"
becomes the rule.
- 1976-1980: illicit use
rises. 11 states decriminalize marijuana
- 1980: Peak of use. Reagan
elected
- Emphasis on enforcement.
Budget reverses: 1/3 treat, 2/3 enforcement.
- DuPont leads "zero-tolerance"
movement
- 1981: Carlton Turner
appointed drug advisor: All illegal drugs dangerous. Treatment encourages
use.
- Federal spending on
treatment down 75%
- Nancy Reagan
- Bad press (extravagance)
- Picks up "Just
say no" from NIDA film. 1985:
White-house anti-drug event. Phrase picked up in press.
- Federal spending: 1/5
treatment, 4/5 enforcement
- 1986: DARE
program started by LAPD--quickly spreads to other cities, and receives federal
support.
- 1985-1986: Crack Panic
(Len Bias, Dan Rodgers: cocaine deaths)
- Ed Koch in NYC: death
penalty (becomes life sentence for selling ~$50 of crack).
- Summer of 1986: Reagan:
Nationwide crusade against drugs.
- Anti-drug Abuse Act of
1986: overwhelmingly approved. Major intensification of penalties. Death to
traffickers, No longer distinctions between "hard" and "soft"
drugs, or "recreational" use/abuse.
- Public opinion increasing
harsh (ironically reported drug use falling rapidly).
- George Bush (the elder)
elected. Carries on. William Bennett: Drug Czar.
- ONDCP
created: 1988 (Current Director: R. Gil Kerlikowske)
- 1989: 64% of Americans
name drug abuse number one problem (illicit use at historic low).
Only 2% viewed it as so problematic in 1986.
1993-2000: Bill Clinton
- Smoked, but didn't inhale.
- Illicit use increases
- 1992: ADAMHA Reorganization:
Transfers NIDA, NIMH, and NIAAA to
NIH and incorporates ADAMHA's programs into the Substance Abuse and Mental
Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
- Federal anti-drug budget
increases ten fold ($1.5 billion in 1989--$18.5 billion in 2000)
- Gen.
Barry McCaffrey appointed Drug Czar. (1996)
- Arrests soar: 1,580,000
arrested in 2000 (use approaching secondary plateau)
- Refuses federal support
for needle-exchange
- Links drug use violation
to termination of federal education loans and grants
- November 1996: Proposition
215 in California: medicinal marijuana
- 1998
Tobacco Settlement
2001-2008: George W. Bush
- New Drug Czar:
R. Gil Kerlikowske (ONDCP)
- Lot's of economic issues
to address, yet:
- Growing support for
drug courts
- Promise to not prosecute
medicinal marijuana use in states that have passed such legislation
- October
2009: Attorney
General Eric Holder "orders" an end
to federal prosecution of medicinal marijuana in states with medicinal
marijuana legislation.
- Budget
for 2010
A
Social History of America's Most Popular Drugs (PBS
Frontline: Drug Wars, 2000)
Bias,
the Media, and Research
URL: http://www.umsl.edu/~keelr/180/drughistory.htm
Owner: Robert O. Keel rok@umsl.edu
References and
Credits for this Page of Notes
Last Updated:
Friday, October 23, 2009 8:34 AM
