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Period: 2000 BCE to
Coca and the Andean People
The people of the Andes Mountains have been using the coca plant for ancient rituals and everyday gift giving for 4,000 years. -
Marijuana
Brazil is the first country to have a record of marijuana, and was introduced to the drug through slave trade. -
Chinese Laborers
Chinese laborers began immigrating to work in gold fields for lower wages than white American workers, known as "coolie wages" -
Discovery of Cocaine
Cocaine was first isolated from the coca plant by Albert Friedrich Emil Niemann in Germany. -
Period: to
Chinatown!
Chinese people were prohibited from many rural counties, so they began heading to Pacific coast cities and establishing Chinatowns -
California's Depression
California went into an economic depression in 1875, and as a result San Francisco enacted an ordinance prohibiting the operation of Opium dens, public establishments created solely to smoke opium, because it was believed that the Chinese smoking opium caused them to work harder than white nonusers. -
Patent Medicines
A bill was introduced to Congress to regulate national food and drugs. The bill was opposed by the Proprietary Association of America, who represented the patent medicine industry and were more concerned with making money than preventing distribution of faulty meds. -
Chinese Exclusion Act
The Chinese Exclusion Act banned the entry of Chinese laborers into the united states -
Sigmund Freud
In 1884 Sigmund Freud started taking cocaine and shortly after began treating his morphine addict friend with cocaine. His friend died the following year because of misuse of the substance -
Yung Jon
In 1886 a Chinese man named Yung Jon filed a petition for habeas corpus when being convicted of opium violations, claiming that for the Chinese, opium is not a vice, and that the legislation only wants to, essentially, bully the "Heathen Chinese." -
Coca Cola
Coca Cola is one big name soft drink that once contained coca, but it has since been replaced with high fructose corn syrup. Coca Cola was first bottled in 1894 -
The Phillipines
As a result of the Spanish-American war, the Philippines were ceded to the United States. Previously, Spanish colonialism allowed opium smoking among Chinese workers in the islands, which was not allowed in the US. -
National Races Act
The National Races Act, prohibiting the sale of alcohol and opium to "uncivilized" Indians, Eskimos, and Chinese "aboriginals" -
The Jungle
Upton Sinclair wrote a publication called the Jungle that exposed the dirty, unsanitary, and dangerous conditions under which food reached the customer. Because of this article, meat sales dropped by almost 50%. -
Pure Food and Drug Act
Low meat sales caught the attention of Former President Theodore Roosevelt, who started an investigation on Sinclair's claims. They confirmed the allegations and had even more to add to the list. Because of The Jungle, The Pure Food and Drug Act was passed, requiring medicines to list the drugs used in production and their amounts. -
International Opium Commission
Thirteen nations met in Shanghai, with Bishop Brent as their commissioner, to adopt resolutions for the worldwide opium problem. -
Harrison Act
The Harrison Act, approved by former President Woodrow Wilson stated that anyone dealing the specific drugs covered by the act must pay a $1 annual tax and register to do so. Only medical professionals could register, and any unregistered person caught in possession would face up to five years of jailtime and a maximum $2,000 fine. -
Period: to
Prohibition
Prohibition was the ban of production, importation, transport, and sale of alcohol. The idea was formed by Protestants trying to cure the "ill" society and weaken political opposition. The Volstead Act clarified prohibition laws and provided federal enforcement officers, menaces who wound up killing many innocent people. Most were never brought to justice. During prohibition, America's murder rate rose from 6.8 per 100,000 in 1920 to 9.7 per 100,000 in 1933 and began to decline immediately after -
Father of American Surgery
William Stewart Halstead was surgeon-in-chief at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Halstead began using cocaine in 1884 and died, addicted to the substance at 70 years old in 1922. -
Cocaine as a Narcotic
Congress deemed cocaine a narcotic and prohibited importation into the country. -
Reefer Madness
In 1936, a movie called Reefer Madness painted a horrifying portrait of what marijuana users are like when they're high. -
Marijuana Tax Act
The Marijuana Tax Act charged users $100 for every ounce that was purchased -
Raised Penalties
Penalties for trafficking and possession of marijuana were increased -
Period: to
Cocaine is glamorous?
In the 1960's and 1970's, as marijuana became more openly accepted, the media began to make cocaine look glamorous, both events caused a more liberal view on cocaine. -
Rehab Programs
In 1961, California began confining narcotics addicts into hospitals for treatment, and was shortly followed by New York, who formed the Narcotic Addiction Control Commission -
Narcotic Addict Rehabilitation Act
The Narcotic Addict Rehabilitation Act allows federal district courts to order civil commitment to those found to be addicts, and mandated the Surgeon General to establish rehabilitation and posthospitalization programs for addicts. -
Oregon
Oregon was the first state to decriminalize possession of marijuana under one ounce. -
California
In 1975, California passed a bill stating that any amount of marijuana less than one ounce was simply a misdemeanor with a max fine of $100 -
11 States
By 1978, eleven American states had decriminalized marijuana -
Period: to
Popularity of Crack Cocaine
Crack cocaine, a form of cocaine that is smoked, became popular in the 1980s. Users and dealers were alarmingly younger than those with other drugs, and with a higher competitive market, the percentage of drug-related violence rose. Due to the rise in violence, elected officials, in turn, increased the penalties for crack cocaine over regular cocaine. -
A Change of Pace
By 1987 the rapidly expanding use of crack cocaine came to a halt -
Lighten the Load
By 1989, the popularity of crack cocaine began to diminish completely.
