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Patent Medicines
These medicines are typically made available without a prescription and are made and marketed under a patent. Opium was a primary ingredient in patent medicines making the easily available in the United States. This means opiates were highly available in the United States until 1914. They were prescribed for general symptoms and diseases. -
Sinclair's The Jungle
Upton Sinclair exposed Chicago’s meat industry in a novel. He wrote about the unsanitary conditions, as well as how filthy and unsafe the conditions were. This caused meat sales to decline by 50 percent. The results of this novel was the adoption of the Pure Food and Drug Act, this required medicines to list their drugs and amounts, which includes alcohol and opiates. -
Pure Food and Drug Act
A bill passed to help with regulation on food and drugs. It was passed because of efforts to gain control over the use of opiates and cocaine. The larger picture was to regulate drugs as well as the contents in food. The purpose is to prevent adulterated, poisonous, or misbranded foods from being manufactured, sold, or transported. -
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National Prohibition
The National Prohibition is a time where the sale of alcohol was made illegal and the Eighteenth Amendment was ratified. This was accomplished by the middle class economically declining. Eventually, the Volstead Act was passed which made the prohibition laws more strict. It also caused federal enforcement and strengthened the language of the amendment.