As we saw yesterday, not every effort in the history of substance use disorder prevention was a hit. Some were moderately successful, some were outright failures, and others helped pave the way for services like the FDA that we still utilize today. So what happened next? The mid 1900s to the present were filled with just as many attempts, and just as many misfires.
Less than a year before the Eighteenth Amendment that enacted prohibition was repealed, the Federal Bureau of Narcotics is formed, which would exist until 1973, when it would become what is now known as the Drug Enforcement Administration. Shortly thereafter, President Franklin Roosevelt played a major role in enacting of the International Opium Convention, which would be one of the first international drug control measures.
Some of the first marijuana regulation began in this time as well, but the drug remained in questionable legal status. U.S. Congress passed the Marijuana Tax Act, which simply posed a $1 tax on the sale of marijuana, but was more intended as a form of monitoring and recording the sales rather than preventing them. What was strange about this was that sellers had to acquire a tax stamp, which required them to show that they had marijuana. This in turn would result in their arrest due to possession and distribution.
In the 1950s, the punishments for possession and sale of drugs were heavily increased. The Boggs Act helped to implement minimum sentences and mandatory penalties for drug offenders, and five short years later, the Daniel Act increased the aforementioned penalties eight times over. At this time, the common belief that marijuana caused madness or crime had diminished, but was replaced with the theory of the gateway drug. Those attempting to pass the Daniel Act played up the idea that marijuana use led to the use
of drugs like heroin, which at the time was extremely popular.
In the 1960s and 70s, drug control in the United States stagnated, much due in part to the Daniel and Boggs acts. Methadone and heroin began to find medical uses, but inevitably abuse of these drugs grew. In 1970, the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) was signed into law by President Nixon. The Act helped to regulate the possession, manufacture, importation and use of drugs and other substances. The Act also created the scale we use to classify the legality of certain drugs, known as Schedules. The DEA and FDA then decided which drugs are placed where on these schedules, and are still moved about to this day.
Most famous during this time period was the “War on Drugs”, a term which is still used to refer to the campaign against drug use and trafficking, both foreign and domestic. The program, coined by the Nixon administration, was controversial both then and now. While the program was appeared to be designed to combat foreign drug influence, in reality the hardest hit were those in America. Usually, these individuals were impoverished and were not major players in the drug industry, but were still hit hard by mandatory sentencing.
The crack epidemic of the 1980s followed, and led to a huge spike in drug use in America. Now, regulation has taken a different turn. Colorado and Washington both legalized marijuana in the capacities of selling, consuming, and possessing the drug, and Alaska and Oregon have followed. As the “War on Drugs” tapers off to some degree, hopefully more focus can be placed on treating and helping individuals with addiction, rather than forcing mandatory sentencing and furthering the stigma against those who abuse drugs.
