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Article: Narcotics Trade and Legislation
- Article from:
- Dictionary of American History
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NARCOTICS TRADE AND LEGISLATION
NARCOTICS TRADE AND LEGISLATION.
Narcotics are habit-forming drugs that relieve pain or induce sleep; in excess, they can cause convulsions or actuate coma. In the legal sense, narcotics refers to a class of controlled, criminalized drugs that most commonly includes opium, cocaine, heroin, and marijuana, as well as many synthetic drugs that also have psychoactive effects.
Early Regulation and Legislation
In the nineteenth century, narcotics use was an unregulated activity, limited only by community mores and social stigma. Narcotics were available at grocery stores and through mail order, and cocaine was a key ingredient in many medicine remedies, as ...