Exam 2: A History of Drug Control

During 1800s and early 1900s,the trajectory of public opinion with respect to tolerance versus condemnation of recreational drug use (including alcohol consumption)and opposition to it,versus support of legislation banning and attempting to control it is an up-and-down affair.Summarize that trajectory,locating approximate time periods when both the "ups" and the "downs" took place.

During the 1920s and 1930s,in the years following the Supreme Court ruling on the Harrison Act (1914),which was rendered in 1919,the number of addicts who were arrested on drug charges:

This chapter opened with a news story the conclusion of which was that heroin use is common among middle class suburban teenagers.Is adolescent heroin abuse in America's middle class suburbs as widespread as this news report claims? Evaluate this claim in the light of the discussions presented in this chapter.

Between the 1970s and the 1980s,the federal budget devoted to drug treatment:

It is said that Prohibition (1920-1933)was a disastrous failure.In what ways did Prohibition fail,and in what ways was it a success?

Discuss some of the social changes,both nationally and world-wide,that have facilitated drug use during the past generation or so.

Between 1986 and 1989,the percentage of the American public naming drug abuse as the nation's most serious problem:

The first psychoactive substance that American states attempted to control was:

What are some of the most important ways that legal drug use differs from illegal use? What are some of the ways that instrumental drug use differs from recreational use? Provide examples of each type.

The following development did not take place in the nineteenth-century:

Racism and ethnic prejudice played a role in the three most important pieces of anti-drug legislation passed during the twentieth century-the Harrison Act (1914),the Volstead Act (national alcohol prohibition)(1919),and the Marihuana Tax Act (1937).Describe what role race and/or ethnic prejudice played in the passage of each of these acts.

Which of the following drugs was included in the Harrison Act yet was not a narcotic or opiate?

During the course of the 1980s-that is,from 1980 to the end of 1989-the number of prisoners incarcerated in state penal institutions:

Historians estimate that the number of narcotic addicts in the U.S.prior to 1914 was about:

The primary impact of the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 was to:

Prior to the Harrison Act,most narcotic addicts were:

The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906:

Advocates of drug legalization have argued that alcohol is American society's most harmful drug,and hence,fairness would dictate that if alcohol is legal,the currently illicit drugs should be legalized as well.In the light of some of the points the author made in this chapter,evaluate this argument.

Why has legislation against most illicit drugs been a "success" in that it remains in place and more or less enforced.(Most persons incarcerated in federal prisons,and about a third in state prisons,were convicted for violating the drug laws.)In contrast,laws against the sale of alcohol were a "failure" in the sense that they were repealed.Why the difference? Explain what social forces brought about the success of one and the failure of the other.

National alcohol prohibition did not simply spring forth,fully formed,in 1920.It emerged out of social,cultural,and political processes that brought it into being.What were the most important of these processes and why did they put their stamp on prohibition legislation? And what were the social,cultural,and political forces that took place during the 1920s and early 1930s that brought about the demise of Prohibition?