ABSTRACT
Public perceptions of drugs and drug abuse have shifted dramatically over the past 200 years. Twice, Americans have accepted and then rejected drugs in our society. Humankind’s drug abuse legacy began in diverse areas as China, Egypt, India, the Middle East, and the Americas, where cannabis, ephedra, and opium were used for medicinal purposes and as general health tonics. The reality is that the reduction of opiate use around 1900 was probably due more to a fear of addiction, particularly among physicians, than to any successful campaign to reduce drug abuse. Drug abuse in the early twentieth century was nothing new or unusual. What was relatively new was the variety of drugs abused, and the extent to which each decade since 1900 can be characterized by particular drug fads, especially in the United States. As early as 1887 and in the absence of federal laws, some states had begun regulatory procedures.
