1906

The UK Pharmacy Act is amended to include opium and all its preparations containing at least 1%

History of Pharmacy
The Pharmaceutical Journal Online (P J Online)
http://www.pharmj.com/Editorial/20020629/articles/jacobbell.html

China and England enact a treaty restricting the Sino-Indian opium trade

1908

The sale of cocaine is regulated under the Poisons and Pharmacy Act 1908

1909

On 1st February the International Opium Commission convenes at Shanghai , at the initiative of the United States .

1909 Shanghai Conference
See here

The American Government is represented by Dr Hamilton-Wright and Bishop Henry Brent, both of whom were committed prohibitionists. They attempt to convince delegates of attending nations of the dire physical and moral consequences of opium use, both for the individual and the society. The prime focus is upon the Anglo-Indian opium trade to China .

The formal designation of this meeting as a 'commission' illustrates that the United States had been unsuccessful in its attempts to convene a 'conference'. The latter status would have conferred upon the meeting the power to draft regulations to which signatory states would be bound by international law.

Dr Hamilton-Wright
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/History/e1910/worstfiend.htm

Rev Charles H Brent
http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bio/116.html

Historical Survey
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
See here

1910

Following 150 years of failed attempts to rid the country of opium, the Chinese finally convince the British to dismantle the India-China opium trade

1911

The First Opium Conference is convened in the Dutch City of The Hague , in December 1911. The United States are again the driving force

The principles stated at Shanghai form the agenda for the meeting, which is fully empowered to draft a treaty. The result is the Hague Opium Convention of 1912 where signatory states pledge to curb the production, distribution and consumption of opium, morphine, heroin and cocaine and to restrict the use of these materials to 'legitimate medical purposes.' In addition the Convention stipulated that signatories enact domestic legislation designed to 'stamp out' the abuse of narcotics. Before putting this restrictive regime into place, the twelve nations represented at The Hague agreed to await ratification of the treaty by all of the world powers.

The English proposed that for participation in this second conference and the treaty that would result from it, the condition be set that the effects of the treaty should extend to the preparation and trade in cocaine and morphine. The Germans had considerable difficulty with this condition as their pharmaceutical industry had substantial interests in this area.

1912

The International Opium Convention 1912 (The Hague Convention) requires states party to it to limit the manufacture, trade and use of opiates to medical purposes; to close opium dens; to penalise unauthorised possession of opiates; and to prohibit their sale to unauthorised persons.

International Opium Convention Signed at The Hague January 23, 1912
See here

1912 International Opium Convention
See here

1913

The Second Opium Conference takes place at The Hague

Ongoing diplomatic disputes and manoeuvrings further delayed the implementation of the treaty. With the conference re-convening weeks before the outbreak of war in Europe a compromise formula is arrived at. Those individual states that had ratified the Convention were to be allowed to begin its implementation even though the ultimate objective of unanimous ratification remained elusive.

With the commencement of hostilities the issue of drugs became marginalised temporarily and ratification and implementation of the Hague Convention was forced to the sidelines for the duration of the war. It wasn't until 1919 when Article 295 of the Treaty of Versailles incorporated the Convention that the Versailles signatories were committed to the implementation of its measures.

1914

The passing of the Harrison Act in the United States

Named after the senator who proposed it, this landmark piece of 'anti-narcotic' legislation was inscribed in American law only after an extended period of institutional struggle. While condemnation of the drugs in question was virtually unanimous the obstacles to its passage arose within the sphere of constitutional politics and turned on the problematic of the proper relations between federal government and individual states. The medical profession too sought to safeguard their constitutionally guaranteed freedom from federal interference in their prescribing practises. Eventually, Hamilton-Wright and his allies argued successfully that, according to the constitution, the United States' international treaty obligations must take priority, and the Harrison Bill was interpreted as fulfilling the country's obligations as defined by its adherence to the Hague Convention.

In Britain , with the outbreak of the First World War, a package of emergency legislation is enacted. The Defence of the Realm Act, (DORA), gives the state sweeping powers to regulate and control the lives of British citizens and to rule by proclamation where circumstances dictate the necessity of such a course; that is without the requirement to pass a bill through parliament. Much of the focus of the legislation is upon individuals or actions that are seen to pose a threat to the moral wellbeing of the nation and to thereby impact adversely on its war-effort.

The Harrison Act
http://www.umsl.edu/~rkeel/180/narcotic.html#Harrison

http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/history/e1910/harrisonact.htm

DORA
http://www.firstworldwar.com/source/defenceoftherealm.htm

http://www.learningcurve.gov.uk/britain1906to1918/g5/cs1/g5cs1s1a.htm

1916

The Defence of the Realm Act (regulation 40b) was passed in Britain

Under the auspices of the emergency wartime legislation, the possession, distribution and sale of cocaine and opium were made subject to rigorous controls. Restrictions carried the force of law but were promulgated directly through the authority of the Home Office which, under conditions of national emergency, had wrested control of the regulation of drugs from the Privy Council Office.

While the highly exceptional circumstances permitted the pushing through of prohibition without reference to parliament or any serious public debate, these restrictive policies were the outcome of a long term trend which had been gathering force over preceding decades, and represented an 'anti-narcotic' posture closely related to that which was simultaneously becoming established in the United States.

At this juncture, it appeared that an equally hard-line policy would be adopted in Britain

DORA (40b)
http://mcgraw-hill.co.uk/openup/chapters/0335200729.pdf

1918

After a night of partying at a Victory Ball organised to celebrate the armistice, the English actress Billie Carleton dies

Her death is attributed to cocaine of which she was a regular consumer. One in a series of high profile cocaine-related scandals, a moral panic ensues in the press about drug culture and the young bohemians who participate in it.

1919

Formation of The Ministry of Health

1920

The Dangerous Drugs Act 1920 brings Britain into line with its obligations under the Hague Convention and crystallises the proto-legislation contained in DORA 40b. Although principally concerned with opium, the Act also places controls on the importation, exportation and manufacture of tincture of cannabis and preparations containing dyhydrocodeine. It also creates the offence of being an occupier of premises permitting the smoking of prepared opium and introduces the offence of performing acts in this country resulting in the commission of an offence contrary to corresponding law abroad. The Act represents Britain 's first formal drug legislation.

The Ministry of Health was drawn into conflict with the Home Office regarding which should be given overall control of drugs policy - the Home Office was successful, which represented the acceptance of a punitive rather than a medical approach to drugs and drug users.

1921

Report of the Committee appointed by the Secretary of State for the Home Department to consider outstanding objections to the draft regulations issued under the Dangerous Drugs Act, 1920

http://www.bopcris.ac.uk/bopall/ref8593.html

1923

The Dangerous Drugs Amendment Act stiffens up the provisions of the criminal law by increasing the severity of punishments; it imposes stricter controls over the prescribing practices of physicians, augments the bureaucratic requirements for pharmacists, and expands the search powers of the police.

With overall regulatory power remaining with the Home Office, where a puritanical hard-line ethos is now embedded in the institutional culture, and an inflammatory rhetoric of deviants, dope-fiends and foreigners prominent in the British press, the twenties are marked out as an austere decade for users of the newly criminalized chemicals.

1924

The Departmental Committee on Morphine and Heroin Addiction is set up under the chairmanship of Sir Humphrey Rolleston.

Its brief, emerging out of the disputes between the medical and penal approaches to addiction, is to render an authoritative judgement upon the question of the validity or otherwise of the prescription of maintenance doses to addicts. This had, in recent years, been an issue of public prominence in the United States , where a number of high-profile court cases had resulted in the ultimate triumph of the position endorsed by the federal authorities, which was that medical maintenance of addicts did not represent a legitimate course of therapeutic conduct. Many American physicians had faced prosecution for continuing to prescribe opiates for their dependent patients.

Sir Humphrey Rolleston
http://www.bad.org.uk/general/history/century/

The Rolleston Committee (The Forbidden Game, Brian Inglis)
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/lsd/inglis.htm

1925

The Second Opium Conference and Geneva Convention 1925 discuss cannabis as well as opium. It introduces an independent body to monitor and advise on matters relating to opiate distribution and control. Also sets up a system of annual reporting of drug stocks, manufacture and shipments.

1925 Geneva Opium Convention
See here

1926

The publication in the UK of the Report of the Rolleston Committee. The report issues a ringing endorsement of the medical approach to addiction, which it pronounces to be a disease as opposed to 'a mere form of vicious indulgence'. A logical consequence of the acceptance of a disease theorisation is the implied validity of a range of therapeutic responses, including the prescription of maintenance doses of opiates and/or cocaine. The findings constitute a landmark in United Kingdom policy, and formed the basis of the so-called 'British System' of treatment, whereby addicts were maintained by drugs prescribed by their doctors rather than being driven to the illicit market to obtain supplies.

Intensive opposition to a legislative and institutional inscription of the punitive model, from within the medical profession generally, including the BMA, and particularly narcological specialists, eventually forced the Home Office to accommodate the views of physicians in deciding government policy towards drug users. The Rolleston Committee, which comprised some of the most eminent figures amongst practising British addiction specialists, represented the core of this professional opposition, and it succeeded in defeating the penal position when the final confrontation arrived. The resultant mode of managing addiction, the 'British System', would last until the 1960s.

Departmental Committee on Morphine and Heroin Addiction Report
http://www.bopcris.ac.uk/bopall/ref8594.html

An editorial in the Illinois Medical Journal for June 1926, after eleven years of federal law enforcement, concluded:

“The Harrison Narcotic law should never have been placed upon the Statute books of the United States . It is to be granted that the well-meaning blunderers who put it there had in mind only the idea of making it impossible for addicts to secure their supply of "dope" and to prevent unprincipled people from making fortunes, and fattening upon the infirmities of their fellow men.”

1928

An amendment to the Dangerous Drugs Act adds cannabis to the list of proscribed substances and introduces a new offence - the possession of cannabis.

1931

International convention introduces legal requirement for counties to produce detailed statistics of their drug consumption.

It limits production and manufacture of 'narcotics' to that considered necessary for medical and scientific purposes.

The 1931 Geneva Narcotics Manufacturing and Distribution Limitation Convention/1931 Bangkok Opium Smoking Agreement

See here

1932

In the UK , the Dangerous Drugs Act follows up this convention by enshrining the 'medical and scientific purposes only' in UK law.

1934

The Home Office Drugs Branch is founded, and maintains statistics relating to addiction. It also monitors the prescribing of doctors and the dispensing of pharmacists to drug addicts.

1936

Reefer Madness, an American anti-marijuana film, describes how a bunch of beatniks get hooked on the 'devil's weed', and sink into outlaw behaviour.

The 1936 Geneva Trafficking Convention
See here

1942

In Germany Hoechst 10820, later to be named methadone, is discovered.

1945

In the USA commercial production of methadone begins.

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)

Evolution of international drug control, 1945-1995
http://www.unodc.org/unodc/bulletin/bulletin_1999-01-01_1_page003.html

1946

After World War 2, the Geneva Protocol transfers all functions of the League of Nations over to the United Nations, including international drugs control.

The 1946 Lake Success Protocol
See here

1948

The 1948 Paris Protocol
See here

1953

The 1953 New York Opium Protocol
see here

1958

The First Brain Committee

1960s

“The social upheavals of the sixties include the emergence of a worldwide youth culture, in which drug use assumes a prominent and often integral role. The decade represents a key transitional period in the history and culture of modern drug use, and in the policies adopted to respond to it. Drugs become widely identified with social change, which they symbolise and arguably become a vehicle for.”

www.release.org.uk

1961

The United Nations Single Convention unifies and consolidates previous instances of drug control legislation, embracing nine multi-lateral treaties negotiated between 1912 and 1953. The Single Convention was intended to renew and rationalise legislation and to set up new forms of UN drug control administration. It brought raw materials and precursor chemicals within the remit of the treaty. Over 100 drugs are covered by the legislation, classified according to four schedules representing varying degrees of regulatory control. The Convention obliges all signatory states to bring domestic law into accordance with its extensive protocols.

The Report of the Second Inter-departmental Committee on Drug Addiction

Like its predecessor, the committee was known after its chairman Sir Russell and later Lord Brain. The first Brain committee had been commissioned at the end of the 1950s to reconsider the situation vis-à-vis Britain 's drug laws and arrangements for dealing with its addicts, and to advise on whether new measures were necessary. Its report came down in favour of the status quo, and concluded that, in view of the small number of drug addicts in the UK , further restrictions on heroin and cocaine were not necessary. The 'British System' devised by Rolleston had prevented the development of an illicit market comparable to that in the USA .

The First Brain Report restates the Rolleston approach

Report of the Interdepartmental Committee On Drug Addiction, United Kingdom
http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/bulletin/bulletin_1962-01-01_2_page006.html

1963

In the USA Nyswander and Dole pioneer Methadone Maintenance Treatment (MMT)

1964

In the UK , the Dangerous Drugs Act 1964 is passed, enabling Britain to ratify the UN Single Convention

The second Brain Committee is set up

1965

This year saw the publication of the second Brain Report, (Brain II), the interdepartmental committee having been reconvened the previous year. This had been prompted by moral panics in the mass media regarding youth and drugs, especially in relation to the London-based prescribed pharmaceutical diamorphine scene. The report was to assign responsibility for this state of affairs to private doctors prescribing to meet the needs of addicts, and, according to the committee, greatly over-prescribing.

The report marked the most significant turning point in British drug policy since its predecessor met under Rolleston, and represents the beginning of the end for the 'British System'. The main recommendations included the notification of addicts, wide-ranging restrictions on the prescribing rights of doctors, and the setting up of special treatment centres or clinics for the provision of drug treatment. The right to prescribe heroin and cocaine to addicts was now limited to specialist psychiatrists working in clinics and equipped with a license from the Home Office. From this point, in addition, the quantity of these drugs prescribed was reduced dramatically, the heroin substitute methadone being supplied in their place. While technical developments (such as the availability of methadone) and administrative imperatives are sometimes cited as the reasons for these changes, it was profound social changes of the 1960s that formed the underlying causes. The large and rapid increase in drug use, and the tendency of drugs to stand as symbols of social and cultural change, meant that the old structures were considered no longer adequate to meet the challenge that drug use posed to authority. www.release.org.uk

1966

LSD is banned in the UK following intense recreational experimentation

1967

A new Dangerous Drugs Act implements the Brain Committee recommendations, consigning the British System to history. The legislation also introduces new police powers of 'Stop and Search', allowing the police to search people and vehicles for drugs.

A 'Legalise Pot' rally is held in London 's Hyde Park ; an advertisement in The Times, sponsored by SOMA, a drug research organisation, states: 'The law against marijuana is immoral in principle and unworkable in practice.' Signatories include the Beatles, RD Laing and Graham Greene.

1968

Drug clinics are set up

Six to seven per cent of all prescriptions written under the British NHS are for barbiturates; it is estimated that there are about 500,000 regular users in Britain .

1969

The Wooton Committee concludes that 'the long-term consumption of cannabis in moderation has no harmful effects'

1970

Clinics begin the shift towards oral methadone

1971

UK introduces new legislation in the form of the Misuse of Drugs Act

The Misuse of Drugs Act consolidates different bits of legislation to become the key instrument by which the British state prosecutes the possession, supply or manufacture of 'controlled' substances

Misuse of Drugs Act 1971
http://www.ukcia.org/pollaw/lawlibrary/misuseofdrugsact1971.html

US president Richard Nixon initiates the full-blown policy of War On Drugs, declaring drug use to be 'Public Enemy Number One'. The stance adopted by the Nixon regime takes US drug policy to an even more aggressive level, and fully committing the country for the foreseeable future to a law-enforcement solution to the problems associated with drugs. US policy has yet to emerge from this project, and continues to deploy its influence, economic, diplomatic and military in discouraging other UN countries from adopting any alternative approaches.

United Nations Convention on Psychotropic Substances

This treaty extends international control to synthetic drugs including amphetamine, depressants, barbiturates and hallucinogens. As in the Single Convention, the drugs are classified according to four schedules associated with their perceived potential for abuse and their therapeutic value.

Convention on Psychotropic Substances 1971
http://www.incb.org/e/conv/1971/

1975

The shift away from maintenance prescribing begins

1977

The Misuse of Drugs Act (1971) is amended to include MDMA (ecstasy) as a class A drug

1977

In a remote farmhouse in Wales, a police operation codenamed 'Operation Julie' unearths 1.5kg of LSD - still the biggest ever LSD drugs bust in Britain - enough for 20-30 million doses at today's levels.

1980s

The advent of AIDS, or the Human Immuno Deficiency Virus (HIV). Initially, the disease is strongly identified with marginal groups including homosexuals, blacks, prostitutes and intravenous drug users. The fear of the spread of the infection beyond these socially stigmatised groups into the 'normal' population is a major influence of the development of a largely new drug treatment philosophy that becomes known as Harm Reduction or Harm Minimisation. It inspires the setting up of needle exchanges, and has a major impact on restricting the transmission of blood-borne viruses in the UK .

1985

IN the UK , the Controlled Drugs (Penalties) Act introduces life imprisonment as a maximum penalty for trafficking

The Central Funding Initiative funds the expansion of drug services

1986

Throughout the 80s cocaine use soars in the US , especially among the professional classes. So much so that a 1986 survey estimates that 1 in 11 Americans has used the drug.

1987

Ecstasy use becomes integral to British rave culture after being popularised by clubbers at dance parties in Ibiza

1988

United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances ( Vienna Convention)

The treaty seeks to impose international controls upon trafficking through enhanced co-operation between law enforcement agencies, and by strengthening the penalties contained in the domestic laws of signatories. Its provisions deal with the various facets of inter-state co-operation including: extradition, money-laundering, freezing and forfeiture of assets, in addition to the sharing of law enforcement information.

Implementation of the United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances
http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/resolution_1989-05-22_1.html

ACMD Report, Drugs and AIDS encourages the expansion of harm reduction.

Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD)
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/drugs/misuse/acmd/

1991

Schedule 1

Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances
See here

1992

President Clinton admits to having smoked cannabis in his youth - but 'never inhaled'.

1993

ACMD follow-up report AIDS and Drug Misuse endorses methadone maintenance.
In terms of illegal imports into the UK , cocaine overtakes heroin.

Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD)
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/drugs/misuse/acmd/

1994

UK Drug Trafficking Act implements the Vienna Convention.

Drug Trafficking Act 1994
See hee
The Drug Treatment Effectiveness Review is commissioned.

Prescribing Heroin and Other Injectable Drugs
Strang, John. "Prescribing Heroin and Other Injectable Drugs." In: Strang, John & Gossop, Michael, Eds. Editor. Heroin Addiction and Drug Policy the British System. New York : Oxford University Press; 1994. Pp. 192-206.
http://drugpolicyalliance.com/library/injectable2.cfm

1995

Leah Betts dies at her 18th birthday party in Essex after taking an ecstasy tablet. It was believed to be the first time she had taken the drug.

1996

Trainspotting, a film about a group of Scottish heroin users, is criticised for glamorising the culture.

1997

International Drug Control: Historical Aspects and Future Challenges
UNODC 1997
http://www.unodc.org/adhoc/world_drug_report_1997/CH5/5.3b.pdf

1998

United Nations sets out its plan to eradicate drugs entirely by 2008

At the U.N. General Assembly Special Session on Drugs (UNGASS 1988), the international community (as represented by the UN delegates) reaffirmed their support for prohibitive drug policy and committed themselves to achieving a 'drug free world' by 2008- i.e., setting a 10 year timetable for realising the project. A video address by UN general secretary Kofi Annan contained the following pledge: "Our commitment is to make real progress towards eliminating drug crops by the year 2008. It is my hope that this session will go down in history as the time the international community found common ground to take on this task in earnest."

Keith Hellawell, a former chief constable, is appointed National Anti-Drugs Co-ordinator, or drugs 'tsar' and put in charge of the government's 10-year drugs' strategy.

Tackling Drugs Together to Build a Better Britain (1998)
The Government's Ten-Year Strategy for Tackling Drugs Misuse
http://www.archive.official-documents.co.uk/document/cm39/3945/3945.htm

1999

Publication of Drug Use and Dependence - Guidelines on Clinical Management

http://www.dh.gov.uk/assetRoot/04/07/81/98/04078198.pdf

2000

A Police Foundation report suggests certain drugs be reclassified and penalties reduced. The Government rejects the recommendations.

2001

Home Secretary David Blunkett scraps the post of drugs 'tsar'.

The Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 (Modification) Order 2001
http://www.legislation.hmso.gov.uk/si/si2001/20013932.htm

2001

The creation of The National Treatment Agency
http://www.nta.nhs.uk/

The UK 's first Dutch-style cannabis café opens in Stockport , Greater Manchester).

2002

Updated Drug Strategy 2002
http://www.drugs.gov.uk/ReportsandPublications/NationalStrategy/1038840683

Tackling Crack - A National Plan
Drugs Strategy Directorate
http://www.drugs.gov.uk/ReportsandPublications/NationalStrategy/1040390696

2003

When UNGASS met in April 2003 for its mid-term review of the ambitious 10 year project devised at the 1998 session, an official brave face was put on events, and on the alleged progress of the project to wipe all drugs from the face of the earth. However, according to critical commentators the cracks were beginning to show in the façade of unity. The politics of the North-South global divide, the European, Australian and Canadian experiments with harm reduction and the movements toward decriminalisation, in addition to the continued prevalence of illicit drugs and their widespread use: all these factors have asked questions of the present regime international of drug control, questions for which it appears to be fundamentally lacking in answers.

FRANK Campaign launched
http://www.drugs.gov.uk/Campaign

2004

Speech by Tony Blair MP, Prime Minister and Leader of the Labour Party, Labour Party Annual Conference, Brighton Centre

“There will be a radical extension of compulsory drug testing for offenders; a doubling of investment in drug treatment; summary powers to deal with drug dealers and with the violence from binge-drinking; and those believed to be part of organised crime will have their assets confiscated, their bank accounts opened up and if they intimidate juries, face trial without a jury.” Tuesday 28 September 2004

2005

General Election to be held