Anti Drug Use And Abuse - 1413 Words

The twentieth century was filled with illegal drug use and abuse among people from all walks of life including the rich and famous to the humble housewife and everyone in between. The type of drugs that were popular changed during the century and in return the views on them from society changed with them. Legislation had to continually be updated in order to keep up with the times as well. In the 1952 Dwight Eisenhower was elected President of the United States and his administration started to really crack down on what is known today as The War on Drugs even though it will not officially get this title for nineteen more years under President Nixon. Often times the 1950s is an overlooked period in time when it comes to drug use because†¦show more content†¦This new introduction allowed for an even larger number of people to begin using the drugs legally, but it didn’t stop them from abusing them. This abuse didn’t happen overnight by slowly continued into the 1 960s and 1970s. In the 1960s tranquilizers or sedatives, such as Miltown and Valium, enabled millions of housewives to â€Å"get by with a little help from their friends.† These substances were the subject of heavy advertising, much of it depicting women in need of relief from tension and anxiety, by drug companies that offered their products as aids in coping with the normal problems of life (Abadinsky, H. (January, 2013). Those were on top of amphetamines that were already in diet pills being taken by those same housewives. LSD also became very popular among college students and the military during the 1960s. In the midst of the 1960s Lyndon B. Johnson took office as President of the United States and helped to create even more legislation in regards to The War on Drugs including the 1965 Drug Abuse Control Amendments which were enacted to deal with problems caused by abuse of depressants, stimulants and hallucinogens (Significant Dates in U.S. Food and Drug Law History. (2 014, December 19). Fast forward a little further to 1969 and into the Nixon administration another major step in what will be known as The War on Drugs was introduced called Operation