In 1906, the Pure Food and Drug Act, that was years in the making was finally passed under President Roosevelt. This law reflected a sea change in medicine-- an unprecedented wave of regulations. No longer could drug companies have a secret formula and hide potentially toxic substances such as heroin under their patent. The law required drug companies to specify the ingredients of medications on the label. It also regulated the purity and dosage of substances. Not by mere coincidence was the law passed only about five years after Bayer, a German based drug company began selling the morphine derivative, heroin. Thought to be a safe, non-habit forming alternative to morphine, heroin quickly became the “cure-all drug” that was used to treat anything from coughs to restlessness. Yet, just as quickly as it became a household staple, many began to question the innocence of the substance. While the 1906 law had inherent weaknesses, it signaled the beginning of the end for “cure-all” drugs, such as opiate-filled “soothing syrups” that were used for infants. By tracing and evaluating various reports by doctors and investigative journalists on the medical use of heroin, it is clear that the desire for this legislative measure developed from an offshoot in the medical community-- a transformation that took doctors out from behind the curtain, and brought the public into a new era of awareness.
To understand the foundation of this transformation in medicine it is important to look at the change in medical reports by doctors. Comparing Dr. Charles Lang’s to Dr. John Quackenbos’ assessment of heroin one can see the shift from casual observation and opinions to systematic evaluation during the turn of the 20th century. Lang’s medical evalu...
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...pprentice,” in Forces of Habit: Drugs and the Making of the Modern. World Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2002.
Lang, Charles J. “Heroin” Medical Times and Register, March 1899.
“Pure Food and Drug Act 1906.” 34 U.S. Stats. 768, quoted in Medicine in the Americas, Bethesda, Maryland: National Library of Medicine, 2004. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK22116/.
Quackenbos, John Duncan. “Drug Habits: Morphinomania, Heroin Habit, Cocaine Addiction,” in Hypnotic Therapeutics In Theory And Practice: With Numerous Illustrations of Treatment by Suggestion. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1908.
"Restricting the Sale of Drugs." The Washington Post, September 9, 1910.
Scott, Ian. “Heroin: A Hundred-Year Habit.” History Today 48, 1998.
"Soothing Syrups." New York Times, August 30, 1910.
"The Right to Poison." New York Times, January 24, 1906.
The concepts discussed within the article regarding medicalization and changes within the field of medicine served to be new knowledge for me as the article addressed multiple different aspects regarding the growth of medicalization from a sociological standpoint. Furthermore, the article “The Shifting Engines of Medicalization” discussed the significant changes regarding medicalization that have evolved and are evidently practiced within the contemporary society today. For instance, changes have occurred within health policies, corporatized medicine, clinical freedom, authority and sovereignty exercised by physicians has reduced as other factors began to grow that gained importance within medical care (Conrad 4). Moreover, the article emphasized
government set forth the Food and Drugs Act of 1906 in response which regulated and
Before the mid 1900’s the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act was formed to tax those making, importing or selling any derivative of opium or coca leaves. In the 1920s, doctors became aware of the highly addictive nature of opioids and started to avoid treating patients with them (Center, 2004). In 1924 heroin became illegal. However according to a history published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2003, anesthesiologists opened "nerve block clinics" in the 1950s and 1960s to manage pain without having to resort to surgery (Meldrum, 2003). This push for treating pain without surgery was a major factor in the opioid epidemic we see today. In 2008 the overdose death rate was almost four times the rate in 1999, and the sales of prescription pain relievers in 2010 were four times higher than in 1999 (Paulozzi et al, 2011). The substance use disorder treatment admission rate is also greater than in 1999, with it having been six times higher in 2009. Chasing Heroin’s claims surrounding the fear of prescribing pain medications is accurate as you see an increase in public policies surrounding opiate use in the early 1900’s. The climbing rates of overdose deaths and the increased amount of people seeking addiction treatment suggests that the fear of prescription opiates was
Almost one hundred years ago, prescription drugs like morphine were available at almost any general store. Women carried bottles of very addictive potent opiate based pain killers in their purse. Many individuals like Edgar Allen Poe died from such addictions. Since that time through various federal, state and local laws, drugs like morphine are now prescription drugs; however, this has not stopped the addiction to opiate based pain killers. Today’s society combats an ever increasing number of very deadly addictive drugs from designer drugs to narcotics to the less potent but equally destructive alcohol and marijuana. With all of these new and old drugs going in and out of vogue with addicts, it appears that the increase of misuse and abuse is founded greater in the prescription opiate based painkillers.
"Pure Food and Drug Act: A Muckraking Triumph." Food and Drug Act. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Feb. 2014.
In the reality of the postmodern world, where nature is gone and has been replaced by technology, where the world and humankind have become fused with the machine, and the existence of morality and reality are uncertain, it is difficult to find hope for a better existence or motivation to attempt to change one's existence. Addiction then becomes a logical avenue of escape from these bleak circumstances--not affecting reality, but transforming it into something bearable. The addictions that Case turns to allow him to escape from the hard reality of his life th...
No Author. "Pure food and drug act." wikipedia 23 March 2005. 4 oct. 2007 .
originally called this, started in 1906 with the approval of the Pure Food and Drugs Act. This act
"Regulatory Information." Federal Food and Drugs Act of 1906. U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 20 May 2009. Web. 14 Apr. 2014. .
In the book, Addiction & Grace: Love and Spirituality in the Healing of Addictions, May explores how addiction develops and can be treated from a psychological, physiological, and spiritual standpoint. This theme is clearly shown throughout the text as it shows addiction from a whole person's perspective. The book covers the development of addiction from desire through the experience of addiction. The key focus is on looking at the matter of addiction from multiple stand points then broken down by explaining how addiction is an issue psychologically, physiologically, and spiritually. By focusing on these three areas, the author is able to present the reader with a clear understanding of addiction from all sides of the problem.
Drug use and abuse is as old as mankind itself. Human beings have always had a desire to eat or drink substances that make them feel relaxed, stimulated, or euphoric. Wine was used at least from the time of the early Egyptians; narcotics from 4000 B.C.; and medicinal use of marijuana has been dated to 2737 B.C. in China. But it was not until the nineteenth century that the active substances in drugs were extracted. There was a time in history when some of these newly discovered substances, such as morphine, laudanum, cocaine, were completely unregulated and prescribed freely by physicians for a wide variety of ailments.
Drugs are used to escape the real and move into the surreal world of one’s own imaginations, where the pain is gone and one believes one can be happy. People look on their life, their world, their own reality, and feel sickened by the uncaringly blunt vision. Those too weak to stand up to this hard life seek their escape. They believe this escape may be found in chemicals that can alter the mind, placing a delusional peace in the place of their own depression: “Euphoric, narcotic, pleasantly halucinant,” (52). They do this with alcohol, acid, crack, cocaine, heroine, opium, even marijuana for the commoner economy. These people would rather hide behind the haze than deal with real problems. “...A gramme is better than a damn.” (55).
Toates, F. (2010) ‘The nature of addictions: scientific evidence and personal accounts’ in SDK228 The science of the mind: investigating mental health, Book 3, Addictions, Milton Keynes, The Open University, pp. 1-30.
Wolf, M. (2011, June 4). We should declare an end to our disastrous war on drugs. Financial Times. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.proxy.consortiumlibrary.org/docview/870200965?accountid=14473
Everitt, B. Robbins, T. (1999) Drug addiction: bad habits add up. Macmillian Magazines, volume 389, pg 567-570.