Throughout U.S. history there have been many attempts to control drug use. The first attempt to control drugs in the U.S. came about in 1868. In that year the Pharmacy Act of 1868 was passed (Drugs 78). The act required the registration of anyone that was dispensing drugs, such as prescriptions. Around 1987 the first amounts of cocaine began to appear in the country, it was mainly used as a substitute for opium and a cure for asthma and toothaches (Drugs 78). The next major step to enforce drugs in the country came by the passing of the Harrison Act in 1914. The act though was not a major force to prohibit the use of drugs. It was mainly a means to collect revenue from the sale of prescribed drugs. It also did make it unlawful to poses narcotics unless the drug was prescribed by a

Cocaine is a dangerous drug and is made from a plant called the coca. The people of the Andes used the plant for centuries in a legal way by using the plant for chewing and as an herb tea. Part of the harm of cocaine is all of the money that the United States has to spend to try and stop the production of the coca plant. The U.S. utilizes military and police personnel to try and attack the production of the plant. One of the major problems that they are having is a social and economic problem that will occur for the farmer of the plant if their farming is stopped. There is no alternative crop for the farmers to grow at this point. They did try and promote the production of soybeans in the area but the USDA put a stop to that with fears of competition with American growers ands exports (Boucher 1). It is estimated that Peru's export earnings from the coca plant somewhere between $1.3 billion and $2.8 billion, and Bolivia's at somewhere between $1.4 billion to $2 billion. The plant is then imported to Columbia where it is processed into the drug. When Columbia exports the drug they earn somewhere between $7 billion and $15 billion, but the actual revenue from transaction in the United States is far larger at $76 billion to $181 billion (The Kickback 1).

Another disease that smoking has a great toll on is cardiovascular disease. Smoking results in a three to four times greater likelihood of myocardial infarction, cardiac arrest and stroke. Of the 400,000 smoking related deaths that were reported in 1990, 180,000 of them were a result of some cardiovascular problem (Skaar 3). Patients that have been found to have some sort of cardiovascular disease and smoke have experiences a rapid decrease in the conditions of the disease once they quit smoking. One last major concern of smoking is when a women smokes when she is pregnant with a child. There are a few concerns that are associated with smoking and being pregnant. There is an increased risk of pre and prenatal mortality, placenta abruptia, placenta previa, low birth weight, preterm delivery and SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome) (Skaar 3). One other problem that the United States is currently having with smoking is paying for all of the people that are in the hospital with smoking related illnesses. The states are stuck paying for illnesses that cigarette companies caused by putting their product on the market. So the states organized and filed a class action suit against the companies and won. The settlements then made the cigarette companies raise the prices for their cigarettes and smokers end up footing the bill for their own habits.

Tobacco is the first of the legal drugs that will be talked about. The addictive agent that is in tobacco is nicotine. It is very well known that smoking contributes to higher rates of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and many other respiratory diseases such as emphysema. Although even smokers very well know all of this, approximately twenty-five percent of the United States population continues to smoke (Skaar 1). In the United States in 1990 tobacco related deaths reached upward of 400,000. This number represented nearly nineteen percent of all deaths and almost forty percent of all deaths resulting from a preventable cause (Skaar 1). Also as noted by Breslau, there has been observation in both men and women of a more than twofold greater risk for major depression in persons with nicotine dependence (Breslau 1). Also stated was that even though there is a more common chance of major depression in women nicotine dependence and depression did not vary between the sexes. All of this means that both nicotine dependant men, and women are at a greater risk for major depression.

Alcohol is probably the most common legal mind altering drug found around the home and in fact everywhere. The alcohol related costs to the United States have been estimated at 100,000 deaths and one hundred billion dollars each year (

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Approximate Word count = 3632
Approximate Pages = 15 (250 words per page double spaced)