1910's Medicine and Health | "How the Drug Dopers Fight"

Magazine article

By: George Creel

Date: January 30, 1915

Source: Creel, George. "How the Drug Dopers Fight." Harper's Weekly, January 30, 1915, 110–112.

About the Author: George Creel (1876–1953), a crusading investigative journalist, was a vehement critic of the patent-medicine industry. Shifting gears, he served the Wilson administration during World War I (1914–1918) as chairman of the highly controversial Committee on Public Information, a government agency designed to promote support for the conflict.

Introduction

Most of the laws prohibiting the sale, possession, and use of narcotics and other controlled substances are barely a century old. Throughout the earlier part of the nation's history, a libertarian attitude prevailed regarding these matters, which were once deemed private, not public, concerns. Self-medication had been the norm. Only...