History of Addiction - World War II and Beyond

WORLD WARII 1939 1945 TO SYNTHETIC DRUGS OPIUM CANNABIS BARBITURATES AMPHETAMINES COCAINE LSD ALCOHOL TOBACCO 1939 1940 Cigarette sales skyrocket during the war, with tobacco companies providing millions of free smokes to soldiers, who had to pay for their cigarettes once they were back home. The Japanese government starts distributing amphetamine pills to soldiers, pilots and arms factory workers to improve their alertness during warfare. 1941 1942 Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek orders the complete suppression of the poppy; laws are enacted providing the death penalty for anyone guilty of cultivating the poppy, manufacturing opium, or offering it for sale. Adolf Hitler receives daily methamphetamine injections from his doctor. Cannabis is removed from the United States Pharmacopeia. This effectively stripped trips of any remaining legitimacy as a medically valid drug. 1945 By the end of World War Il, Americans are hooked on cigarettes, with smoking rates jumping 75% between 1940 and 1945. By the war's end, the average person is smoking 3,500 cigarettes a year. THEPOST WAR ERA 1946 1962 TO 1946 According to some estimates there are 1950 40 million opium smokers in China. Evidence mounts that smoking is linked to lung cancer. Tobacco companies deny their products are dangerous, but still introduce what they call "safer" products, such as filtered cigarettes with less tar. Tobacco companies face a rash of lawsuits alleging fraud and negligence; the tobacco companies prevail initially. 1951 According to United Nations estimates, there are approximately 200 million marijyana users in the world The major places being India, Egypt, North Africa, Mexico, and the United States. 20,000 pounds of opium, 300 pounds of heroin, and various opium-smoking devices are publicly burned in Canton China. Thirty-seven opium addicts are executed in the southwest of China. 1955 The Prasidium des Deutschen Arztetages declares: TREATMENT OF THEDRUG ADDICT SHOULDBEEFFECTEDINTHE CLOSED SECTOR OF APSYCHIATRICINSTITUTION. AMBULATORY TREATMENT IS USELESS ANDINCONFLICT, MOREOVER, WITHPRINCIPLES OF MEDICALETHICS. The view is quoted approvingly, as representative of the opinion of "most of the authors recommending commitment to an institution," by the World Health Organization in 1962. 1956 The Narcotics Control Act in enacted; it provides the death penalty, if recommended by the jury, for the sale of heroin by an adult to a juvenile. 1958 Ten percent of the arable land in Italy is under viticulture; two million people earn their living wholly or partly from the production or sale of wine. GUMMER ARDOVE The 1960's 1963 Tobacco sales total $8.08 billion, of which $3.3 billion go to federal, state, and local taxes. A news release from the tobacco industry proudly states: 1964 An editorial in "The New York Times" calls attention to the fact that "the Government continues to be the tobacco industry's biggest booster. The Department of Agriculture lost $16 million in supporting the price of tobacco in the last fiscal year, and stands to lose even more because it has just raised the subsidy that tobacco growers will get on their 1964 crop. "TOBACCOPRODUCTS PASSACROSS SALES COUNTERS MORE FREQUENTLY THAN ANYTHING ELSE-EXCEPT MONEY. The New Jork Tmes 1965 1966 American chemist Alexander Shulgin experiments with ecstasy and is the first person to describe the drug's effect on humans. Congress enacts the "Narcotics Addict Rehabilitation Act, inaugurating a federal civil commitment program for addicts. C. W. Sandman, Jr. chairman of the New Jersey Narcotic Drug Study Commission, declares that LSD is "THE GREATEST THREAT FACING THE COUNTRY TODAY... MORE DANGEROUS THAN THE VIETNAM WAR. 1967 The tobacco industry in the United States spends an estimated $250 million on advertising smoking. Rolling Stones Mick Jagger and Keith Richards are sentenced to prison for smoking cannabis. Their convictions are later quashed on appeal. 1968 The U.S. tobacco industry has gross sales of $8 billion. Americans smoke 544 billion cigarettes. Six to seven percent of all prescriptions written under the British National Health Service are for barbiturates; it is estimated that about 500,000 British are regular users. 1969 U.S. production and value of some medical chemicals: ASPIRIN (exclusive of salicylic acid) BARBITUATES SALICYLIC ACID $13 TRANQUILIZERS MILLION POUNDS 37 MILLION POUNDS $7 MILLION POUNDS 13 MILLION "Withheld POUNDS $2.5 MILLION disclosing POUNDS figures for to avoid 1.5 individual 800,000 MILLION producers" POUNDS POUNDS VALUE PRODUCTION ON DRUUS The 1970's 1971 President Nixon declares that AMERICA'S PUBLICENEMY NO.1 ISDRUG ABUSE." In a message to Congress, the President calls for the creation of a Special Action Office of Drug Abuse Prevention. 1972 The house votes 366-0 to authcrize "A $1 billion, three-year federal attack on drug abuse." At the Bronx house of corrections, out of a total of 780 inmates, approximately 400 are given tranquilizers such as Valium, Elavil, Thorazine, and Librium. DONNAFES In the United States, the street price is $30 to $90 per grain, or $.50 or $1.50 In England, the pharmacy cost of heroin is $.04 per grain (60 mg), or $.00067 per mg. per mg. Operation Intercept requires all vehicles returning from Mexico to be checked. Long lines occur and, as usual no dent is made in drug trafficking. U.S. therapists experiment with MDMA in dealing with marital problems. 1977 The Joint Committee of the New York Bar Association concludes that the Rockefeller drug laws, the toughest in the nation, have had no effect in reducing drug use but have clogged the courts and the criminal justice system to the point of gridlock. In a remote farmhouse in Wales, a police operation codenamed "Operation Julie," unearths 1.5kg of LSD – still the biggest ever LSD drug busts in Britain – enough for 20 million to 30 million doses at today's levels. NEXT THE 80S THROUGH TODAY active internet marketing