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Opium Regulation

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Opium’s regulation in the United States has paralleled opium’s history and has gone from very lenient to very strict regulation within the last 100 years as a result of legislation. During the 18th century both Britain and the United States were involved in the very profitable business of trading opium; however, social reformers and many leaders disapproved of this across the world. In 1833 the first treaty on the trade of opium internationally was passed in the United States. Shortly thereafter more legislation was passed in 1842, which taxed crude imports of opium into the country. At this time the United States was outsourcing to China for labor in constructing railroads and they brought the habit of opium smoking with them. This habit …show more content…
The first national law against opium usage was not passed until 1909. The Smoking Opium Exclusion Act targeted the Chinese, which was the main demographic used opium. This was considered very deviant because opium use was only supported for medical purposes. Following the legislation, crackdowns on opium use by law enforcement made opium smoking financially out of reach and lead users to the cheaper derivative: heroine. More legislation was passed in 1914 to combat this new problem. The Harrison Act regulated the acquisition of opiates and stated that opiates that were not medicines containing less then a certain opium concentration could only be obtained legally with a prescription from a doctor. Despite the law doctors prescribed opiates to addicted patients on a maintenance basis despite federal attempts for prosecutors to convict them. In 1916 Jun Fuey Mody versus the United States upheld the right of physicians to prescribe to maintain an …show more content…
However, despite the delay in regulation in these countries, which include the Shan states (particularly Burma), China, Laos and Thailand, punishments for usage and distribution in these countries are the most severe. Although many Asian countries have passed laws regulating opium usage, these laws came years after legislation in the United States and other industrialized countries. As a result many Asian counties currently have higher prevalence of usage and addicts. Within a twenty-five year period Laos, Hong Kong and Thailand all enacted laws regulating opium usage, which up until that point was a very traditional behavior in these countries. In Hong Kong the British were very lax with their regulation of opium usage in this colony prior to World War II; however, after the war they began heavily enforcing narcotics laws. In 1960 ordinance 34 was passed which created treatment facilities for addicts; however, although this law has lead to a decrease in opium usage it has also lead to an increase in the use of its derivate, specifically heroine. This is also seen in other Asian countries, which historically have had less restrictive attitudes towards opium. In Thailand an anti-opium law was passed in 1959 as a result of pressure from other countries. This

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