When did drugs become illegal?

[Tuzenbach]

I just figured that drugs becoming illegal had to do with the Industrial Revolution. Afterall, drugged-up persons could easily fall into the machinery!

I never knew that Racism was the real cause.

 

[Welverin]

Mind you that's all I ever heard of it, but then I haven't gone looking into it either.

 

[Bloodstone Press]

I’ve been wondering how long it would take this thread to turn from When to Why.

It is true (at least to my education on the matter) that racism is related to drug prohibition in America in several instances. One of the argument politicians and preachers made against Marijuana was that it was associated with the “dirty” Mexicans who brought it up from the South. It was also something the black jazz musicians were known to use. I’ve seen quotes from various people of the era saying things like “Pot will make your daughters like jazz music and hang out with blacks! Vote Yes on Proposition 94 to outlaw marijuana!”

However, I’ve also read about pot being made illegal during the middle-ages. I believe it was a Sultan of the middle east who declared that anyone caught smoking pot would have all their teeth pulled out—don’t know if that’s true or not.

I’ve also heard the story about Opium and the Chinese.

We should remember that the xenophobia was rampant, world wide in the 1930s. Crude science had suggested that there were certain people who were genetically superior to others and people were taking that to heart. These ideas reached a boiling point during the 1940s.

Also, there was a show on the History Channel about the history of drugs, which basically made the point that drugs became illegal when science started creating “super drugs” such as cocaine and heroine, which have extremely addictive qualities.

Also, a good way to find out why drugs are illegal is to look at which companies lobby the government for prohibition. I’ve never seen an official list of these companies, but I’ve head it contains:
1. Du Pont (for industrial reasons)
2. Anheuser Bush (for recreational reasons)

We should also remember that prohibition of all sorts in America has a strong religious component. Puritans, who have always believed that drugs of any sort are tools of the devil, founded America. In fact, I think it is this factor, perhaps more than any other, that causes the striking difference in drug laws in America as opposed to other countries, such as B.C. Canada, the Netherlands, Denmark, and even England.

After all, the main reason given for prohibition is that “it ruins your life.” That’s puritanical code for “I am here to save you from yourself.” They also like to say, “it contributes to crime.” Perhaps that’s because its illegal??

(note, I’m not an expert on these things, this is all hearsay and opinion)

 

[Henry]

I just figured that drugs becoming illegal had to do with the Industrial Revolution. Afterall, drugged-up persons could easily fall into the machinery!

I never knew that Racism was the real cause.

In some cases, Drugs ENABLED the Industrial Revolution. Laudanum was a drug (Gin and Opium tonic) that mothers would give babies before going to work. In urban households of the time, the whole family would go to work in factories - Husband, Wife, Kids of ambulatory age. The infants had no one to look after them, so frequently mothers would give thier infants Laudanum to keep them quiet and out of trouble while they went off to work.

..."Sarah Johnson of Nottingham claimed that she " Knows it is quite a common custom for mothers to give Godfrey's and the Anodyne cordial to their infants, 'it is quite too common.' It is given to infants at the breast; it is not given because the child is ill, but 'to compose it to rest, to sleep it,' so that the mother may get to work. 'Has seen an infant lay asleep on its mother's lap whilst at the lace-frame for six or eight hours at a time.' This has been from the effects of the cordial." [Reports from Assistant Handloom-Weavers' Commissioners, British Parliamentary Papers, 1840 (43) XXIII, p. 157] Mary Colton, a lace worker from Nottingham, described her use of the drug to parliamentary investigators thus: 'Was confined of an illegitimate child in November, 1839. When the child was a week old she gave it a half teaspoonful of Godfrey's twice a-day. She could not afford to pay for the nursing of the child, and so gave it Godfrey's to keep it quiet, that she might not be interrupted at the lace piece; she gradually increased the quantity by a drop or two at a time until it reached a teaspoonful; when the infant was four months old it was so "wankle" and thin that folks persuaded her to give it laudanum to bring it on, as it did other children. A halfpenny worth, which was about a teaspoonful and three-quarters, was given in two days; continued to give her this quantity since February, 1840, until this last past (1841), and then reduced the quantity. She now buys a halfpenny worth of laudanum and a halfpenny worth of Godfrey's mixed, which lasts her three days. . . . If it had not been for her having to sit so close to work she would never have given the child Godfrey's. She has tried to break it off many times but cannot, for if she did, she should not have anything to eat." [Children's Employment Commission: Second Report of the Commissioners (Trades and Manufactures), British Parliamentary Papers, 1843 (431) XIV, p. 630]."

There were a LOT of infant deaths due to Laudanum overdosing.

Furthermore, alcohol as an addiction came into fashion as urban populations grew, due to brand-new social pressures introduced by so many people living so closely together, which was new to Western Civilization in general.

The Book Alcoholic Republic also gives some fascinating insights on the role that alcohol has played in the U.S.