This book provides a comprehensive overview of drug policy in the United States from the early 1900s through the present day, providing historical and social context through the telling of the colorful and often tragic stories of the events and individuals throughout this period.Substance Abuse in America: A Documentary and Reference Guide examines the history of U.S. drug policy chronologically, from the early 1900s through the current day, covering topics such as patent medicines, Prohibition, Reefer Madness, the psychedelic '60s, Nixon's War on Drugs, and the powerful warring Mexican drug cartels that currently threaten political instability in that country.This book provides a comprehensive overview of U.S. drug policy that will fascinate general readers and benefit those in the field of substance abuse treatment or policy. Each chapter includes an analysis of a primary source document that serves to illuminate drug policy in America at a particular point in time as well as the reasons for the waxing and waning popularity of various drugs. The author provides accurate historical context that explains perceptions about substance abuse in American history, and draws compelling parallels across different time periods to show that much of what may seem new and unique for the present generation actually has a historical precedent.

Suggestions for further readering are provided with each chapter, including books and book chapters, articles in the popular press, government documents, and links to Internet resources

Reader's Guide to Related Documents and SidebarsForeword by David T. CourtwrightPreface: The Forgotten WarIntroduction1. The Early 20th Century: Patent Medicines, the Rise and Fall of Prohibition, the Narcotics Farms"The Whole Vast System of Bunco""A Big Wild Man Who Has Cocaine in His Body""A Hitherto Inoffensive Negro""In the Course of His Professional Practice Only""The Great Social and Economic Experiment, Noble in Motive and Far Reaching in Purpose""No One but a Physician""Nobody Shot Me""I Believe This Would Be a Good Time for a Beer""The Sick and Afflicted Shall Be Set in the Way of Strength and Hope"2. The 1930s through the 1950s: Harry J. Anslinger and the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, Reefer Madness, the Kefauver Committee, the Beat Generation"As Dangerous as a Coiled Snake""It Has Something to Do with Something That Is Called Marihuana""It Is Concluded That Marihuana Is Not a Drug of Addiction, Comparable to Morphine""They Go from Sneaky Pete to Pot to Horse to Banging""They Took the Needle When the Thrill of Marijuana Was Gone""To Provide a More Effective Control of Narcotic Drugs and Marihuana""I Saw the Best Minds of My Generation Destroyed by Madness""Current Treatment of Addiction Is Unsatisfactory"3. The 1960s through the Mid-1990s: Amphetamines and Barbiturates, the Counterculture, LSD, Vietnam, the Heroin Epidemics, Cocaine Reemerges, Crack Cocaine, HIV/AIDS, Harm Reduction, Sentencing Disparities"Better Living through Chemistry""We Really Thought That Drugs Were Going to Change the World""Crapping around Will Not Be Tolerated""'Junky Johnny' Comes Marchin' Home""Like Dom Perignon and Caviar""We Are Fighting a Disease, Not People""From the Champagne of Drugs to the Beer of Drugs""He Liked the Prop. It Drove the Point Home""Heroin and Cocaine Infected Thousands of Drug-Stunned Addicts""The Experiment in Mass Incarceration"4. The Mid-1990s to 2011: Medical Marijuana, Black Tar Heroin, OxyContin, Methamphetamine, the Mexican Drug War, the War on Drugs Continues"Any Other Illness for Which Marijuana Provides Relief""Heroinville""It's Growing from Within""I Felt My Face Just Melting""It's All Rather Irrelevant"BibliographyIndex