When did drugs become illegal?

[reanjr]

I for one have a large stash of codeine left over from when I had chronic bronchitis, and a bout of mononucleosis back in '98. It made breathing slightly easier, but tasted horrible. The stuff I was prescribed came in syrup form, but mix that up with some frozen gatorade and you've got a nice big feel-good slushie. Mind you, if you have to concentrate on breathing every waking minute, a little opiate buzz was hardly noticable.

That's why you should consume narcotics when you're healthy so you can take full advantage of them.

 

[reanjr]

During the Victorian era they actually sold chocolate canides filled with tincture of cannibis. Now tincture of cannibis is simply a suspension of cannibis (also known as marijana) in a solution of alchol. Even Queen Victoria ate these candies to treat menstral cramps. So yes Dogbrain Queen Victoria was a pothead.

Yes, but people also used to go to their barber for a blood-letting or leeching to cure "demonic possession," an ailment commonly known nowadays as "influenza."

 

[reanjr]

I would say about the same too. I know marijuana was outlawed around the same time as Prohibition. I would imagine cocaine was outlawed around the same time. Maybe opium too, though I can't really say. More modern stuff was probably never legal.

Both LSD and ecstasy were perfectly legal for brief periods of time. I think they are now both Schedule A drugs.

 

[barsoomcore]

The question is sort of meaningless, really. Which drugs? Caffeine? Well, it was illegal in many Islamic countries for quite a while. Tobacco? It's verging on illegal throughout much of North America these days. Marijuana? Sure varies depending on where you are. George Washington grew it and kept careful notes on his crops. Currently it's perfectly legal here in British Columbia. Cocaine? Heroin? Alcohol? Qat? E? LSD?

If you're running a "real-world" campaign, do some research on the period you're setting the game in. Stuff like that is usually pretty easy to find out. If you're running a non-real-world campaign, just make it up. Have fun!

 

[Dogbrain]

If you're running a "real-world" campaign, do some research on the period you're setting the game in. Stuff like that is usually pretty easy to find out. If you're running a non-real-world campaign, just make it up. Have fun!

And the laws do not have to make any sense, whatsoever. What is deemed "legal" and what is deemed "illegal" is ultimately quite arbitrary, if one looks at human history on this matter.

 

[barsoomcore]

And the laws do not have to make any sense, whatsoever.

Putting it rather mildly. Which is unusual for you, Dogbrain. Are you feeling okay?

 

[Dogbrain]

Putting it rather mildly. Which is unusual for you, Dogbrain. Are you feeling okay?

Nobody wrote anything particularly stupid on this thread.

 

[Torm]

Nobody wrote anything particularly stupid on this thread.

BWAH HA HA HA HA HA HA!

Just passing through, but I sure am glad I did!

 

[WayneLigon]

It borders on conspiracy theory, but apparently hemp by itself has some pretty amazing properties (no, not those) which led to certain interests wanted it banned. The best known of these uses are it's fiber strength, which led to it being used in ropes and in paper-making; unfortunately, it's a very hard process to seperate the pulp and fibers. It's a superior product but expensive, so it'a mainly used for official douments, archival quality material, etc. The story goes that the Heart Corporation is the first to really back a ban on marijuana through the aformentioned racist-slanted articles. The reason? Panco Villa's army seized almost a million acres of prime timberland in Mexico owned by the Heart Corporation. Enter duPont with a chemically-intensive means of making paper from wood pulp and the fact that recent advances have also created a machine to more economically extract pulp from hemp; neither powerful group wants to see this technology make hemp pulp cheaper to use than wood pulp, so the hype begins due to the coincidence that another part of the hemp plant is widely used as a recreational drug.

It kinda smacks of conspiracy theory, but at the same time Hearst was a complete and utter bastard, along with many of his cronies. I could beleive it of him.

 

[Welverin]

More specifically (from one of those pages):

"Once the extremely debilitating power of addicting drugs was recognized, many American cities and states--starting with San Francisco in 1875--began passing anti-drug laws."

I had a teacher once who said the real reason for opium getting banned in SF was to keep the chinese out, apparently the reasoning was that since a law couldn't be made specifically for that purpose that outlawong opium would keep them away.