A Brief History of Drugs

Drugs have made a major impact on American history since the founding of the first English colony at Jamestown in 1607. Even as drugs, legal and otherwise, have contributed to the growth of the nation's economy, Americans have struggled to find policies that limit drugs' negative effects on society without generating negative side-effects of their own.

First synthesized in 1887, the stimulant amphetamine became popular in 1920s in the medical community, where it was used for raising blood pressure, enlarging the nasal passages, and stimulating the central nervous system. Abuse of the drug began during the 1930s, when it was marketed under the name Benzedrine and sold in an over-the-counter inhaler. During World War II, amphetamines were widely distributed to soldiers to combat fatigue and improve both mood and endurance, and after the war physicians began to prescribe amphetamines to fight depression. As legal usage of amphetamines increased, a black market emerged. Common users of illicit amphetamines included truck drivers on long commutes and athletes looking for better performance. Students referred to the drug as "pep pills" and used them to aid in studying.The earliest references to the practice of injecting amphetamines (particularly methamphetamine) occurred during the 1950s, but the practice did not spread until the 1960s. In 1962 a crackdown on San Francisco pharmacies which sold injectable amphetamines drew national attention to the problem of amphetamine "mainlining." and led to the emergence of underground production facilities referred to as "speed labs". While many of these labs, primarily located on the West Coast, were small "Mom and Pop" operations, the amphetamine trade was historically dominated by outlaw motorcycle groups. Amphetamine use began to decline in the 1970s, due to increased public awareness of its dangers, as well as FDA scheduling of the drug.During the 1990s, the popularity of crystal methamphetamine, a smokable form of methamphetamine commonly referred to as "ice", began to increase in the United States. In addition to the traditional local "mom and pop" labs, in 1995 Mexico-based trafficking groups began to enter the methamphetamine market and now dominate the trade. In the 1990s, clandestine "Mom and Pop" labs have sprung up throughout the Midwestern United States, and as a result the Mexican traffickers have also targeted the region. There are two current basic profiles of methamphetamine users: students (both high school and college) and white, blue-collar and unemployed persons in their 20s and 30s.

Cocaine is derived from the coca plant native to the Andean highlands of South America. Pure cocaine was first isolated in the mid-nineteenth century, but its effects weren't recognized in the medical world until the 1880s. In 1883, Dr. Theodor Aschenbrandt, a German army physician, prescribed cocaine to Bavarian soldiers during training to help reduce fatigue. In July, 1884, Sigmund Freud published Uber Coca, a hymn of praise to the drug which, along with "Vin Mariani," a coca wine manufactured by a Corsican chemist, helped lead to the drug's popularization in Europe. In 1886 John Pemberton of Atlanta, Georgia began to market "Coca-Cola," a syrup derived from coca leaves and African kola nuts. The same year Dr. William Alexander Hammond, the Surgeon-General of the U.S. Army endorsed the medical use of cocaine at a meeting of the New York Neurological Society. Throughout the early 1900s unregulated medicinal "tonics" were sold containing ingredients including cocaine and opium. By 1902 there were an estimated 200,000 cocaine addicts in the United States, and by 1907, U.S. coca leaf imports were three times their 1900 levels. Hundreds of early Hollywood silent films depicted scenes of drug use and trafficking.In 1914, the Harrison Narcotic Act outlawed cocaine in the United States and usage declined throughout the 1940s through the 1960s. In the 1970s cocaine regained popularity as a recreational drug and was glamorized in the U.S. popular media. Articles from the time proclaimed cocaine as non-addictive. The drug was viewed as harmless until the 1985 emergence of crack.Cocaine usage peaked in the United States 1982 with 10.4 million users. The 1998 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse reported that cocaine was used by 3.8 million Americans. As of 1999, Colombia remained the world's leading producer of cocaine, producing three quarters of the world's annual yield.