Federal drug policy of the United States
Starting in the early 1900s, the United States government began enforcing drug policies.
This regulation effectively criminalized opium, morphine, heroin, and cocaine in the United States outside of specific medical use.
The Eighteenth Amendment was ratified in 1919, prohibiting the manufacture, sale, or transportation of alcohol within the United States.
Prohibition was ended when the Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified on December 5, 1933.
[3] The Anti-Drug Abuse Acts of 1986 and 1988 increased penalties and established mandatory sentencing for drug violations.
Although these additional laws increased drug-related arrest throughout the country, they also incarcerated more African Americans than whites.
[3] In the next two decades, forty of the fifty states enacted legislation that reduced the punishment and sentencing for drug offenses.
[3] In 2020, Oregon passed the Ballot Measure 110 which decriminalized possession of any drug in small quantities.
This drug liberalization policy was the first of its kind the in United States and served as an experiment of sorts.
Just two years after implementation, Oregon had one of the highest percentages of adults with substance-abuse disorder in the United States.
[10] Alcohol is a depressant drug that gives individuals quick moments of high energy which inevitably results in the body's vital functions slowing down.
Following the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment in 1933, federal prohibition was repealed and state governments were permitted to regulate alcohol independently.
Cannabis, which is more widely referred to as marijuana, is a psychoactive drug that also acts as a depressant, and has some medical use in the United States.
[11] The Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 was the first federal law to regulate cannabis, effectively criminalizing it in most cases.
Fentanyl, hydromorphone, methadone, morphine, opium, and oxycodone are Schedule II drugs.
[15] Prior to the Controlled Substances Act, federal regulation has restricted opioids since the importation of opium was banned 1909.
The Harrison Narcotics Tax Act of 1914 made opioids illegal in all non-medical cases and restricted the ability of doctors to prescribe them.
[11] Caffeine is legal to use in consumer products in the United States, and it was one of the original substances classified as generally recognized as safe under the Food Additives Amendment of 1958.
