rugs were used in many different counties with relative impunity, and the dangers of drug were generally unknown. In 1887, Sigmund Freud published a work called "Craving For and Fear of Cocaine" in which he called the drug more dangerous than morphine. In 1901 the American Pharmacological Association condemned cocaine, and in 1906 the Pure Food and Drug Act severely limited the use of cocaine in medications and elixirs. Within a short time, the medical uses of cocaine disappeared. In 1914, the federal government passed the Harrison Narcotic Act to regulate the ways physicians could dispense drugs, and this helped keep drugs out of the hands of many people while forcing those already addicted to become criminals in order to satisfy their cravings.
This was the beginning of drug prohibition, and it was succeeded by the attempt at prohibition of alcohol in the 1920s, which has served as an example to both sides in the argument over legalization of drugs ever since. Prohibition did not stop drinking and it did turn the making and selling of alcoholic beverages into a criminal industry. In other ways, Prohibition is considered a success: 1) it reduced drinking by one-third; 2) it produced a 64 percent drop in deaths from cirrhosis; and 3) it resulted in a 53 percent decline in admissions to mental hospitals. Mark S. Gold draws a conclusion from these facts:
Had the prohibition laws been tougher and more aggressively enforced, the benefits to society would have been even greater. We need to keep this important fact in mind as the debate over legalizing drugs heats up.
In 1937 the Marijuana Tax Act placed marijuana on the list of forbidden substances. The strongest force in controlling drug use was social censure for most of this century, and during this period heroin became the primary drug of abuse. Heroin users tended to live mainly in urban ghettoes and so did not come into contact with the mainstream of society. A...