DRUG ABUSE HAS BEEN SINGLED OUT AS NATIONAL SOCIAL HEALTH PROBLEM
NUMBER 1 BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. IT IS A COMPLEX ISSUE
INVOLVING MEDICINE, PHARMACOLOGY, PSYCHOLOGY, EDUCATION, LAW,
SOCIOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY.
USE - AND - ABUSE OF DRUGS DATE BACK TO THE VERY ORIGIN OF RECORDED
HISTORY AND BELOW ARE SOME OF THE OUTSTANDING DATES AND EVENTS IN
THE HISTORY OF DRUGS, THEIR USE AND ABUSE.
5000 B.C. SUMERIAN TABLETS SPEAK OF AN HERB CALLED "THE JOY PLANT."
OPIUM IS KNOWN IN MESOPOTAMIA AND ASSYRIAN MEDICAL TEXTS MENTION IT.
3000 B.C. EPHEDRINE, CLOSELY RELATED TO AMPHETAMINE, CHINESE
DOCTORS.
1500 B.C. EGYPTIAN PHYSICIANS KNEW OF DRUGS AND SEDATIVES SO STRONG THAT THEY ENABLED THEM TO PERFORM SKULL SURGERY.
900 B.C. HOMERS ILIAD SPEAKS OF A CUP "WHICH INDUCES FORGETFULNESS FROM PAIN AND THE SENSE OF EVIL."
900 B.C. HOMER'S OBYSSEY DESCRIBES THE USE OF A DRUG INFUSION AS A "DRINK OF HOSPITALITY."
500 B.C. HERODOTUS, THE GREEK HISTORIAN, RECORDS THAT CERTAIN SIBERIAN TRIBES ACHIEVED TRANCES INDUCED BY INHALING FUMES FROM BURNING HEMP PLANTS.
100 B.C. ROMAN SENATE ATTEMPTS TO SUPPRESS ALCOHOLIC EXCESSES AND ORGIES, CONNECTED WITH WORSHIP OF BACCHUS, BY LAW.
100 B.C. DIOSCORIDES DESCRIBES OPIUM AS WE KNOW IT TODAY. 500 ARAB PHYSICIANS PRESCRIBE CANNABIS FOR A VARIETY OF SICKNESSES. BY THIS TIME THE CANNABIS CAN BE FOUND IN ALMOST ALL OF EUROPE.
700 CHINA BECOMES AWARE OF THE OPIUM POPPY AND OPIUM VIA
THE CENTURY MIDDLE EAST AND INDIA.
1000 THE MARIJUANA CONTROVERSY DATES AS FAR BACK AS THIS.
A NEW CENTURY A.D. RADIAL SECT OF ISLAM, CONTROLLED BY HASSAN.
FOUNDED WAS THE CULT OF ASSASSINS. FOLLOWERS WERE GIVEN HASHISH, THOUGHT THEY WERE IN PARADISE. THEY THEN FOLLOWED ORDERS WHICH INCLUDED MURDER.
1200 MOSLEMS THROUGHOUT THE MIDDLE EAST USE OPIUM AS A MEDICINE
AND AS A SOURCE OF PLEASURE.
1300 MARCO POLO WRITES ABOUT THE ASSASSINS AND THEIR MYSTERIOUS MOUNTAIN STRONGHOLD ALAMUT, WHO ARE SUSPECTED OF USING
HASHISH.
1650 OPIUM SMOKING BECOMES A HUGE PROBLEM IN CHINA.
1767 EAST INDIA COMPANY EXPORTS LARGE QUANTITIES OF OPIUM FROM INDIA TO CHINA TO RAISE REVENUE FOR THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT.
1772 JOSEPH PRIESTLY DISCOVERS NITROUS OXIDE (LAUGHING GAS) THIS WAS ABUSED IN THE COURSE OF "LAUGHING GAS PARTIES".
1796 CHINESE GOVERNMENT MAKES OPIUM SMOKING PUNISHABLE BY
DEATH.
1804 F.W. SERTURNER, A GERMAN PHARMACIST, ISOLATES THE ACTIVE INGREDIENT OF OPIUM.
1817 F.W. SERTURNER CALLS THIS ALKALOID "MORPHINE" AFTER THE GREEK GOD OF SLEEP AND DREAMS, MORPHEUS.
1825 MORPHINE IS FIRST USED IN MEDICINE.
1839 CHINESE GOVERNMENT DEMANDS SURRENDER OF ALL OPIUM CARRIED BY WESTERN SHIPS AND STARTS DETAINING SUCH SHIPS TO INSURE COMPLIANCE, IN ATTEMPT TO CURB OPIUM ADDICTION.
1839-1842 OPIUM WAR BETWEEN ENGLAND AND CHINA RESULTING FROM CHINESE ATTEMPTS TO STOP FOREIGNERS FROM IMPORTING OPIUM INTO CHINA, AND ENDING IN CHINESE DEFEAT.
1844 THE FRENCH POET, GAUTIER ORGANIZES THE CLUB DES HASCHASCHINS IN PARIS, A MARIJUANA SMOKING GROUP OF INTELLECTUALS.
1850'S THE HYPODERMIC SYRINGE IS INTRODUCED ERRONEOUSLY, IT IS BELIEVED THAT MORPHINE INJECTED WITH A SYRINGE IS NON-ADDICTIVE BECAUSE IT DOES NOT "REACH THE STOMACH".
1866 DURING AMERICAN CIVIL WAR UNCONTROLLED USE OF OPIUM AND MORPHINE CREATES MANY ADDICTS AMONG WOUNDED SOLDIERS.
1868 THE SLEEP INDUCING QUALITIES OF CHLORAL HYDRATE ARE DISCOVERED.
1870 DURING FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR UNCONTROLLED USE OF OPIUM AND MORPHINE CREATES MANY ADDICTS IN WOUNDED SOLDIERS.
1870'S A GREAT MANY PATENT MEDICINES CONTAINING GREAT QUANTITIES OF OPIUM ARE BEING MARKETED AND THEIR USE GROWS RAPIDLY DUE TO THE ADVERTISING INDUSTRY WHICH JUST BEGINS TO COME INTO ITS OWN.
1874 HEROIN IS CHEMICALLY DERIVED FROM MORPHINE AND IS DEVELOPED IN ENGLAND.
1875 SAN FRANCISCO HAS SO MANY "OPIUM DENS" THAT A CITY ORDINANCE, THE FIRST ANTI OPIUM LAW IN THE UNITED STATES IS PASSED.
1878 COCAINE, AN ALKALOID OBTAINED FROM THE LEAVES OF THE COCA PLANT, WHICH GROWS ON THE SLOPES OF THE ANDES IS INTRODUCED TO THE UNITED STATES AS WHAT IS THEN BELIEVED A TREATMENT FOR MORPHINE ADDICTION.
1882 THE NEW YORK ASSEMBLY PASSES A BILL AGAINST OPIUM DENS.
1884 DR. SIGMUND FREUD MAKES HIS FIRST STUDY OF THE PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF COCAINE, BELIEVING, ERRONEOUSLY, THAT IT IS A CURE FOR MORPHINE AND ALCOHOL ADDICTION.
1885 JOHN S. PEMBERTON OF ATLANTA, GA. PRODUCES A CONCOCTION OF SYRUP, COCAINE AND KOLA NUT, CALLED COCA-COLA. COCA-COLA NO LONGER CONTAINS COCAINE IN ANY FORM.
1885 MERCK SYNTHESIZES COCAINE
1898 A GERMAN COMPANY, BAYER, BEGINS TO PRODUCE HEROIN COMMERCIALLY.
1903 BARBITURATES ARE INTRODUCED INTO MEDICINE IN GERMANY. BEFORE LONG, A HUGE NUMBER OF CHEMICAL VARIATIONS AND DERIVATIVES OF BARBITURIC ACID ARE PRODUCED AND ABUSED.
1906 THE PURE FOOD AND DRUG ACT IS ENACTED CONTRIBUTING GREATLY TO CURBING THE USE OF PATENT MEDICINES.
1909 INTERNATIONAL OPIUM COMMISSION MEETS IN SHANGHAI WITH 13 NATIONS PARTICIPATING.
1914 THE US GOVERNMENT ACCUSED AND TRIES A MENOMINEE INDIAN FOR USING PEYOTE. ACQUITTED ON GROUNDS OF RELIGIOUS RITE.
1914 CONGRESS PASSES THE HARRISON NARCOTIC ACT WHICH IMPOSES A SPECIAL TAX UPON ALL INVOLVED IN OPIUM.
1921 SUPREME COURT LIMITS QUALITY OF NARCOTICS WHICH CAN BE USED FOR MEDICAL PURPOSES, ADDICT IS LEFT LARGELY WITHOUT MEDICAL HELP.
1927 AMPHETAMINE IS SYNTHESIZED BY A CALIFORNIA PHARMACOLOGIST, G.A. ALLES.
1930 FEDERAL BUREAU OF NARCOTICS IS ESTABLISHED.
1936 PSYCHOLOGY STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA TRY AMPHETAMINES ON THEMSELVES FOR EXTRA ENERGY.
1937 CONGRESS PASSES, PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT SIGNS THE MARIJUANA TAX ACT CLASSING MARIJUANA AS A NARCOTIC.
1938 LSD (LYSERGIC ACID DIETHYLAMIDE) IS PRODUCED IN SWITZERLAND BY DOCTORS HOFFMAN AND STOLL.
1939 DEMURRAL, A SYNTHETIC SUBSTITUTE FOR MORPHINE, IS INTRODUCED.
1941 METHADONE, A SYNTHETIC SUBSTITUTE FOR MORPHINE IS DISCOVERED BY GERMAN SCIENTISTS.
1942 THE OPIUM POPPY CONTROL ACT OF THAT YEAR PROHIBITS THE CULTIVATION OF THE OPIUM POPPY EXCEPT UNDER LICENSE IN THE UNITED STATES.
1944 A REPORT SUBMITTED BY A COMMITTEE CREATED BY MAYOR LaGUARDIA, STATES THAT MARIJUANA IS SMOKED, MOSTLY IN HARLEM, IN "TEA PADS".
1945 DEXTROAMPHETAMINE IS INTRODUCED AS A MEANS TO REDUCE WEIGHT,
AND TO BE USED IN THE TREATMENT OF EPILEPSY.
