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3000 BCE
Coca Plant
Cocaine is found in significant quantities only in the leaves of two species of coca shrub that are indigenous to certain sections of South America, though they have been grown elsewhere. Traditional uses are for Medicine, Nutrition, Religion or Traditional Preparation (chew or tea). -
Jan 1, 1545
Marijuana
Also known as Cannabis and several other names. Marijuana comes from the Indian hemp plant, and the part that contains the "drug" is found primarily in the flowers (commonly called the "buds") and much less in the seeds, and leaves, and stems of the plant. There now currently is more public support for marijuana law reform than ever before. This drug is becoming legal in many different states in the U.S. Brought to the new world by the Spanish in 1545. -
Drug Rehabilitation Programs
The first alcoholic mutual aid was known as sobriety "circles" which were formed within various Native American tribes around the 1700-1800's. Then next came the "sober houses" which was founded by Benjamin Rush in 1810. Between 1969 and 1974 the number of federally funded drug rehabilitation programs dramatically increased from sixteen at the beginning of 1969 to 926 in 1974. Federal expenditures on drug treatment rose from about $80 million to about $800 million during that period. -
Patent Medicines
The term "patent medicine" became very popular for a variety of aches, aliments, and diseases. Patent medicines originally referred to medications whose ingredients had been granted government protection for exclusivity. In actuality, the recipes of most 19th century patent medicines were not officially patented. -
1900
The 1900's was characterized by a lack of political interest in drug use and the extent of prison overcrowding resulting from drug policies resulted in remedies that placed more drug offenders in diversion or drug treatment programs. -
Sinclair's The Jungle
The Jungle was written to portray the meat industry in Chicago, it exposed the filthy, unsanitary, and unsafe conditions under which food reached the consumer. This book later led to the meat inspection act. -
Pure Food and Drug Act
Was the first of a series of significant consumer protection laws enacted by Congress in the 20th century and led to the creation of the Food and Drug Administration. The main purpose was to ban foreign and interstate traffic in adulterated and mislabeled food and drug products. -
Drug Policies Racial and Ethnic Groups
The first anti-opium laws in the 1870's were directed at Chinese immigrants. The first anti-cocaine laws, in the south were in the early 1900's, were directed at black men. The first anti-marijuana laws, in the Midwest and the Southwest in the 1910's and 20's, were directed at Mexican migrants and Mexican Americans. Today, Latino and especially black communities are still subject to wildly disproportionate drug enforcement and sentencing practices. -
Ronald Reagan
Reagan was the 40th president of the United States from the years of 1981-1989. During his presidency drugs again became a major political issue. Before he was the president he was the 33rd governor of California from 1967-1975, after a career as a Hollywood actor and union leader. -
Harrison Act
The Harrison Narcotics Tax Act was a United States federal law that regulated and taxed the production, importation and distribution of opiates and coca products. The act was proposed by Representative Francis Burton Harrison of New York and was approved in the year of 1914. -
Prohibition
In the year of 1919 approval of the Eighteenth Amendment, which outlawed the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages in the United States. Prohibition became a federal law. This law was in effect from 1920-1933. -
Crack Cocaine
Crack Cocaine that can be smoked. It offers a short but intense high to smokers. This particular drug is used for recreational use. Crack first saw widespread use in primarily impoverished inner city neighborhoods in New York, Los Angeles, and Miami in late 1984 and 1985. It's rapid increase in use and availability is sometimes termed as the "crack epidemic".
