Schaffer Library of Drug Policy

The History of the Non-Medical Use of Drugs in the United States

by Charles Whitebread, Professor of Law, USC Law School

A Speech to the California Judges Association 1995 annual conference

Links to Related Documents

This speech is derived from The Forbidden Fruit and the Tree of Knowledge: An Inquiry into the Legal History of American Marijuana Prohibition by Professor Richard J. Bonnie & Professor Charles H. Whitebread, II

In this speech, Professor Whitebread refers to the following documents which are online in this library, either in whole or in part.

The Hearings of the Marihuana Tax Act and related documents.

Marihuana, A Signal of Misunderstanding, by the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse.

The Pure Food and Drugs Act of 1906 - text of the Act

Introduction

The Situation in 1900

The Pure Food and Drugs Act of 1906

The Harrison Act

The Early State Marijuana Laws

The Marihuana Tax Act of 1937

1938 to 1951

Where did marijuana get its awful reputation?

1956 and the Daniel Act

1969 Dangerous Substances Act

Conclusion - The Issue of Prohibition

The Pure Food and Drugs Act of 1906

Then the single law which has done the most in this country to reduce the level of drug addiction is none of the criminal laws we have ever passed. The single law that reduced drug addiction the most was the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act.

The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 did three things:

1). It created the Food and Drug Administration in Washington that must approve all foods and drugs meant for human consumption. The very first impact of that was that the patent medicines were not approved for human consumption once they were tested.

2) The Pure Food and Drug Act said that certain drugs could only be sold on prescription.

3) The Pure Food and Drug Act, (and you know, this is still true today, go look in your medicine chest) requires that any drug that can be potentially habit-forming say so on it's label. "Warning -- May be habit forming."

The labeling requirements, the prescription requirements, and the refusal to approve the patent medicines basically put the patent medicine business out of business and reduced that dramatic source of accidental addiction. The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, not a criminal law, did more to reduce the level of addiction than any other single statute we have passed in all of the times from then to now.