Anti Drug Legislation

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Anti-drug legislation has had an extensive and fascinating record in the United States. The initial drug that showed prevalent use in the nation was Opium, which came primarily from China. Opium was utilized as a recommendation drug by doctors, but the growing cases of addiction led to laws alongside this drug. The greater part of the opium addicts were girls due to the doctors tend to recommend the drug for many women’s particular problems. In 1875, a law was approved in California barring individuals from smoking opium. While the law pertained generally to Chinese immigrants it was the first place in anti-drug provision is the Unites States. At the Federal stage, the prohibition of importation of opium by Chinese nationals happened in 1887 and in 1905 opium smoking was constrained in the Philippines (Harrison). While these regulations were the initial steps, they did not have any absolute provisions to decrease drug supply and use in the country. The laws beleaguered the lessening of delivery of drugs in the country and do not deal with the problem of treatment of a true illness.

The first foremost legislation in this course was the Harrison Act, approved in 1914. One of the top powerful legislative acts ever approved concerning drugs, occurred in 1914 when Congress permitted the Harrison Act (following its major sponsor, Representative Francis Burton Harrison of New York) (Harrison). The act mandated every doctor who approved substances like the opium and morphine to trace with the government officials and if some individual without such license approved these substances could be punished together with a fine and prison time. As time progressed, it was becoming more apparent that the mistreatment and harm inflicted by these ...

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...ion and enormous government expenditure, is highly arguable. The civilization is incessantly changing, and we have to relook at the goals of the anti-drug provision and either it is having the preferred outcome. Some changes in the laws and policies appear essential so as to in fact eradicate the negative effects of drugs on our culture.

Reference:

Harrison, History of drug legislation, retrieved on March 21, 2012 from http://www.cedro-uva.org/lib/harrison.cannabis.05.html

Authorizing Legislation Office of National drug Control Policy, retrieved on March 20, 2012 from http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/about/authorizing_legislation.html

Adam Liptak, U.S. prison population dwarfs that of other nations, retrieved on March 20, 2012 from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/23/world/americas/23iht-23prison.12253738.html?_r=1

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