Chronology

c. 5000 BCE     Dried peyote buttons dating from this era are later found in Shumla Cave, Texas.

c. 4000 BCE     Opium poppies are cultivated in the Fertile Crescent (now Iran and Iraq) by the ancient cultures of Mesopotamia.

1552 BCE     An ancient Egyptian papyrus text from the city of Thebes lists 700 uses for opium.

c. 1300 BCE     A Peruvian carving depicting a San Pedro cactus, a source of mescaline, is made on stone tablets.

c. 700 BCE     Archaeological tablets record that Persians and Assyrians used cannabis as a drug.

c. 199     Galen (129–c. 199), a medical authority during late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, creates a philosophy of medicine, anatomy, and physiology that remains virtually unchallenged until the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

c. 200     Chinese surgeons boil hemp in wine to produce an anesthetic called ma fei san.

c. 400     Hemp is cultivated in Europe and in England.

600-900     Arabic traders introduce opium to China.

1000     In Coahuila, Mexico, corpses are buried with beaded necklaces of dried peyote buttons.

c. 1200     Peoples of pre-Hispanic America throughout the Inca Empire (1200–1553) chew coca leaves for their stimulating effects and view the plant as a divine gift of the Sun God.

c. 1300     Arabs develop the technique of roasting coffee beans (native to the Kaffa region of Ethiopia), and cultivation for medicinal purposes begins.

c. 1350     Germany bans the sale of alcohol on Sundays and other religious holidays.

c. 1500     Following the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs, unsuccessful attempts are made to prohibit the use of the "magic mushroom" (Psilocybe mushrooms) in Central America.

c. 1500     With the rise of national navies during the sixteenth century, hemp farming is encouraged in England and continental Europe to meet the demand for rope and naval rigging.

1524     Paracelsus (1493–1541), Swiss physician and alchemist, mixes opium with alcohol and names the resulting product laudanum.

1556     Andre Thevet brings tobacco seeds to France from Brazil, thus introducing tobacco to Western Europe. Jean Nico suggests that tobacco has medicinal properties in 1559 at the French court, and the plant is renamed nicotina in his honor. By 1565, tobacco seeds are brought to England, where smoking is later made popular by Sir Walter Raleigh.

1612     Tobacco cultivation begins in America and soon becomes a major New World crop. Exports to England begin in 1613, with the first shipment by John Rolfe.

1640     First distillery is established in the United States.

1772     Nitrous oxide is discovered by British scientist, theologian, and philosopher Joseph Priestly (1733–1804).

1775     William Withering, a British physician with a strong interest in botany, introduces the drug digitalis (Foxglove Digitalis purpurea) into common medical practice for the treatment of dropsy. Dropsy is a now-obsolete term for edema (fluid retention or swelling) due to heart failure.

1798     Government legislation is passed to establish hospitals in the United States devoted to the care of ill sailors. This initiative leads to the establishment of a Hygenic Laboratory that eventually grows to become the National Institutes of Health.

1799     Chinese emperor Kia King's ban on opium fails to stop the profitable British monopoly over the opium trade.

1799     British scientist Humphry Davy (1778–1829) suggests nitrous oxide can be used to reduce pain during surgery.

c. 1800     Records show that chloral hydrate is used in the "Mickey Finn" cocktail—a drink used to knock people out. The Mickey Finn was used by people wanting to abduct or lure sailors to serve on ships bound for sea.

1803     German scientist Friedrich Sertürner isolates morphine as the most active ingredient in the opium poppy.

1824     Performances in London of "M. Henry's Mechanical and Chemical Demonstrations" show the effects of nitrous oxide on audience volunteers.

1827     Caffeine from tea, originally named "theine," is isolated.

1828     Nicotine (C10 H14 N2, beta-pyridyl-alpha-N methylpyrrolidine), a highly poisonous alkaloid, is first isolated from tobacco.

1829     Salicin, the precursor of aspirin, is purified from the bark of the willow tree.

1832     French chemist Michel-Eugène Chevreul (1786–1889) isolates creatine from muscle tissue.

1832     Pierre-Jean Robiquet (1780–1840) discovers codeine. Codeine is an alkaloid found in opium that is now used in prescription pain relievers and cough medicines.

1837     Edinburgh chemist and physician William Gregory discovers a more efficient method to isolate and purify morphine.

1839     The First Opium War begins between Britain and China. The conflict lasts until 1842. Imperial Chinese commissioner Lin Tse-Hsu seizes or destroys vast amounts of opium, including stocks owned by British traders. The Chinese pay compensation of more than 21 million silver dollars, and Hong Kong is ceded to Britain under the Treaty of Nanking.

1841     The anesthetic properties of ether are first used by Dr. Crawford W. Long as he surgically removes two tumors from the neck of an anesthetized patient.

1844     The first recorded use of nitrous oxide in U.S. dentistry occurs and involves Quincy Colton, a former medical student, and dentist Horace Wells.

1848     The hypodermic needle is invented, allowing for quicker delivery of morphine to the brain.

1856     The Second Opium War begins between Britain and China. The conflict lasts until 1860. Also known as the Arrow War, or the Anglo-French War in China, the war breaks out after a British-flagged ship, the Arrow, is impounded by China. France joins Britain in the war after the murder of a French missionary. China is again defeated and made to pay another large compensation. Under the Treaty of Tientsin, opium is again legalized.

1860     German chemist, Albert Niemann, separates cocaine from the coca leaf.

1861–1865     Morphine gains wide medical use during the American Civil War. Many injured soldiers return from the war as morphine addicts. Morphine addiction becomes known as the "soldiers' disease."

1862     The Department of Agriculture establishes the Bureau of Chemistry, the forerunner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

1863     German chemist Adolf von Baeyer (1835–1917) discovers barbituric acid.

1864     Amyl nitrite is first synthesized. During the last decades of the twentieth century, amyl nitrite and similar compounds (e.g., butyl, isobutyl, isoamyl, isopropyl, and cyclohexyl nitrates and nitrites) become the chemical basis of "poppers."

1864     German scientists Joseph von Mering (1849-1908) and Nobel prizewinner Emil Hermann Fischer (1852-1919) synthesize the first barbiturate.

1867     Thomas Lauder Brunton (1844–1916), a medical student in Scotland, discovers that amyl nitrite relieves angina by increasing blood flow to the heart. A few years later, nitroglycerine is discovered to have a similar dilating effect. Although both can still be prescribed for angina, nitroglycerine became more commonly prescribed because it is more easily administered and has fewer side effects.

1871     Companies in both the United States and the United Kingdom succeed in producing compressed and liquid nitrous oxide in cylinders.

1874     British chemist Alder Wright uses morphine to create diacetylmorphine (heroin), in an effort to produce a less addictive painkiller.

1879     The Memphis, Tennessee, public health agency targets opium dens by making it illegal to sell, own, or borrow "opium or any deleterious drug." Critics point out that it is unfair to deny opium to Chinese immigrants while allowing white citizens to freely purchase morphine. In fact, people could legally inhale, drink, or inject morphine at that time. It wasn't until 1909 that federal law outlawed smoking or possessing opium.

1882     Production of the drug barbital begins, and doctors start using the barbiturate in various treatments.

1887     Amphetamines are first synthesized.

1889     French-born scientist Charles Edouard Brown-Sequard (1817–1894) reports that he has injected himself with a compound taken from the testicles of dogs. He says the compound made him feel stronger and more energetic.

1891     The British Medical Journal reports that Indian hemp was frequently prescribed for "a form of insanity peculiar to women."

1893     The first diet pills (e.g., thyroid extracts) are marketed in United States.

1895     Heinrich Dreser, working for the Bayer Company in Germany, produces a drug he thinks is as effective as morphine in reducing pain, but without its harmful side effects. Bayer began mass production of diacetylmorphine, and in 1898 begins marketing the new drug under the brand name "Heroin" as a cough sedative.

1896     More than 300 opium "dens" are in operation in New York City alone.

1897     German chemist Arthur Heffter identifies mescaline as the chemical responsible for peyote's hallucinogenic effects.

1898     German chemical company Bayer aggressively markets heroin as a cough cure for the rampant disease of the time, tuberculosis.

1901     Jokichi Takamine (1854–1922), Japanese American chemist, and T. B. Aldrich first isolate epinephrine from the adrenal gland. Later known by the trade name Adrenalin, it is eventually identified as a neurotransmitter.

1903     Barbiturate-containing Veronal is marketed as a sleeping pill.

1903     Barbiturates (a class of drugs with more effective sedativehypnotic effects) replace the use of most sedative bromides.

1903     To determine the safety of additives and preservatives in foods and medicines, the U.S. government establishes a "poison squad," a group of young men who volunteer to eat foods treated with chemicals such as borax, formaldehyde, and benzoic acid. The poison squad was established by Dr. Harvey W. Wiley (1844–1930), head of the U.S. Bureau of Chemistry, the precursor to the FDA.

1906     The U.S. Congress passes the Pure Food and Drug Act.

1909     Congressional legislation stops U.S. imports of smokable opium or opium derivatives except for medicinal purposes.

1910     Britain signs an agreement with China to dismantle the opium trade. However, the profits made from its cultivation, manufacture, and sale are so enormous that no serious interruption occurs until World War II (1939–1945) closes supply routes throughout Asia.

1912     Casimir Funk (1884–1967), Polish American biochemist, coins the term "vitamine." Because the dietary substances he discovers are in the amine group, he calls all of them "life-amines" (using the Latin word vita for "life").

1912     Ecstasy, 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), is developed in Germany.

1912     Phenobarbital is introduced under the trade name Luminal.

1912     The U.S. Public Health Service is established.

1912     The U.S. Congress enacts the Shirley Amendment that prohibits false therapeutic claims in advertising or labeling medicines.

1913     The U.S. Congress passes the Gould Amendment requiring accurate and clear labeling of weights, measures, and numbers on food packages.

1914     The Harrison Narcotic Act bans opiates and cocaine in the United States. Their use as local anesthetics remains legal, however.

1916     Oxycodone is first developed in Germany and marketed under the brand name Eukodal.

1918     The Native American Church (NAC) is founded and combines Christian practices with the use of peyote rituals. Ultimately, the U.S. government exempts the NAC from its ban on peyote if the drug is used as part of a bona fide religious ceremony. This point remains a center of legal controversy in states that want to limit peyote use or outlaw it completely.

1919     The Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (ratified on January 29, 1919) begins the era of Prohibition in the United States. It prohibits the sale and consumption of alcohol in the nation.

1919     Methamphetamine is first manufactured in Japan.

1925     The League of Nations adopts strict rules governing the international heroin trade.

1926     Phencyclidine (PCP) is first synthesized.

1927     Albert Szent-Györgyi (1893–1986), Hungarian American physicist, discovers ascorbic acid, or vitamin C, while studying oxidation in plants.

1929     Scottish biochemist Alexander Fleming (1881–1955) discovers penicillin. He observes that the mold Penicillium notatum inhibits the growth of some bacteria. This is the first antibiotic, and it opens a new era of "wonder drugs" to combat infection and disease.

1930     The U.S. Food, Drug, and Insecticide Administration is renamed the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

1932     Pharmaceutical manufacturer Smith, Kline and French introduces Benzedrine, an over-the-counter amphetamine-based inhaler for relieving nasal congestion.

1933     The Twenty-first Amendment to the U.S. Constitution repeals the Eighteenth Amendment and makes it legal to sell and consume alcohol in United States again.

1935     The Federal Bureau of Narcotics, forerunner of the modern Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), begins a campaign that portrays marijuana as a drug that leads users to addiction, violence, and insanity. The government produces films such as Marihuana (1935), Reefer Madness (1936), and Assassin of Youth (1937).

1935     The first Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) group is formed in Akron, Ohio.

1935     Testosterone is first isolated in the laboratory.

1936     The U.S. government begins to open a series of facilities to help deal with the rising number of opiate addicts in the nation.

1937     Amphetamine is used to treat a condition known as minimal brain dysfunction, a disorder later renamed attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

1937     Diethylene glycol, an elixir of sulfanilamide, kills 107 people, including many children. The mass poisoning highlights the need for additional legislation regarding drug safety.

1937     The Marijuana Tax Act effectively makes it a crime to use or possess the drug, even for medical reasons.

1938     The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetics Act gives regulatory powers to the FDA. It also requires that new drugs be clinically tested and proven safe.

1938     Meperidine is synthesized. Other synthetic opioids soon follow.

1938     Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann (1906– ) at Sandoz Laboratories synthesizes LSD. After initially testing it on animals, Hofmann accidentally ingests some of the drug in 1943, revealing LSD's hallucinogenic properties.

1938     The Wheeler-Lea Act empowers the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to oversee non-prescription drug advertising otherwise regulated by the FDA.

1939     Ernest Chain (1906–1979) and H. W. Florey (1898–1968) refine the purification of penicillin, allowing the mass production of the antibiotic.

1939     Methadone, a synthetic opioid narcotic, is created in Germany. Originally named Amidon, early methadone was used mainly as a pain reliever.

1942     The Opium Poppy Control Act outlaws possession of opium poppies in United States.

1944     To combat battle fatigue during World War II, nearly 200 million amphetamine tablets are issued to American soldiers stationed in Great Britain during the war.

1944     The U.S. Public Health Service Act is passed.

1945     After World War II, anabolic-androgenic steroids (AASs) are given to many starving concentration camp survivors to help them add skeletal muscle and build up body weight.

1948     A U.S. Supreme Court ruling allows the FDA to investigate drug sales at the pharmacy level.

1948     The World Health Organization (WHO) is formed. The WHO subsequently becomes the principal international organization managing public health related issues on a global scale. Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, the WHO becomes, by 2002, an organization of more than 190 member countries. The organization contributes to international public health in areas including disease prevention and control, promotion of good health, addressing disease outbreaks, initiatives to eliminate diseases (e.g., vaccination programs), and development of treatment and prevention standards.

1949     The FDA publishes a "black book" guide about the toxicity of chemicals in food.

1950     A U.S. Court of Appeals rules that drug labels must include intended regular uses of the drug.

1951     The U.S. Durham-Humphrey Amendment defines conditions under which drugs require medical supervision and further requires that prescriptions be written only by a licensed practitioner.

1952     The tranquilizer Reserpine rapidly begins replacing induced insulin shock therapy (injecting patients with insulin until their blood sugar levels fall so low that they become comatose), electroconvulsive (ECT) therapy (inducing seizures by passing an electric current through the brain), and lobotomy (making an incision in the lobe of the brain) as treatments for certain types of mental illness.

1953     British novelist Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) publishes The Doors of Perception, a book in which he recounts his experiences with peyote.

1953     Jonas Salk (1915–1995) begins testing a polio vaccine comprised of a mixture of killed viruses.

1953     Narcotics Anonymous (NA) is founded.

1953     The U.S. Federal Security Agency becomes the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW).

1954     Veterinarians begin using piperazines, which are designed to rid the lower intestinal tract of parasitic worms.

1955     Scientists in India first synthesize methaqualone.

1956     The American Medical Association defines alcoholism as a disease.

1956     Dimethyltriptamine (DMT) is recognized as being hallucinogenic.

1957     Researchers John Baer, Karl Beyer, James Sprague, and Frederick Novello formulate the drug chlorothiazide, the first of the thiazide diuretics. This groundbreaking discovery marks a new era in medicine as the first safe and effective long-term treatment for chronic hypertension and heart failure.

1958     Aaron B. Lerner isolates melatonin from the pineal gland.

1958     The FDA publishes a list of substances generally recognized as safe.

1958     The Parke-Davis pharmaceutical company synthesizes and patents PCP. After testing, Parke-Davis sells the drug as a general anesthetic called Sernyl.

1958     The U.S. government passes food additives amendments that require manufacturers to establish safety and to eliminate additives demonstrated to cause cancer.

1959     Fentanyl, first synthesized in Belgium by Janssen Parmaceutica, is used as a pain management drug.

1960     The FDA requires warnings on labels of potentially hazardous household chemicals.

1960     Gamma butyrolactone (GBL) is first synthesized.

1960     GBH, a fast-acting central nervous system depressant, is developed as an alternative anesthetic (painkiller) for use in surgery because of its ability to induce sleep and reversible coma.

1961     Commencing a two-year study, Harvard professor Timothy Leary attempts to reform criminals at the Massachusetts Correctional Institute. The inmates are given doses of psilocybin and psychological therapy. Ultimately, the psilocybin-subjected inmates have the same rate of return to prison as the inmates who were not part of the study. In addition to this, they have more parole violations than the general parolees.

1961     Ketamine (originally CI581) is discovered by Calvin Stevens of Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan.

1962     The American Medical Association publishes a public warning in its journal JAMA regarding the increasingly widespread use of LSD for recreational purposes.

1962     Thalidomide, a sleeping pill also used to combat morning sickness in pregnant women, is discovered to be the cause of widespread and similar birth defects in babies born in Great Britain and western Europe. Earlier, Dr. Frances Kelsey of the FDA had refused to approve the drug for use in the United States pending further research. Due to her steadfast refusal, countless birth defects are prevented in the United States.

1962     The U.S. Congress passes the Kefauver-Harris Drug Amendments that shift the burden of proof of clinical safety to drug manufacturers. For the first time, drug manufacturers have to prove their products are safe and effective before they can be sold.

1964     The first Surgeon General's Report on Smoking and Health is released. The U.S. government first acknowledges and publicizes that cigarette smoking is a leading cause of cancer, bronchitis, and emphysema.

1965     At the height of tobacco use in the United States, surveys show 52 percent of adult men and 32 percent of adult women use tobacco products.

1965     Because of disturbing side effects including horrible nightmares, delusions, hallucinations, agitation, delirium, disorientation, and difficulty speaking, PCP use on humans is stopped in the United States. PCP continued to be sold as a veterinary anesthetic under the brand name Sernylan.

1965     The manufacture of LSD becomes illegal in the United States. A year later it is made illegal in the United Kingdom. The FDA subsequently classifies LSD as a Schedule I drug in 1970.

1965     The U.S. Congress passes the Drug Abuse Control Amendments—legislation that forms the FDA Bureau of Drug Abuse Control and gives the FDA tighter regulatory control over amphetamines, barbiturates, and other prescription drugs with high abuse potential.

1966     The FDA and the National Academy of Sciences begin investigation of the effectiveness of drugs previously approved because they were thought to be safe.

1966     The U.S. Narcotic Addiction Rehabilitation Act gives federal financial assistance to states and local authorities to develop a local system of drug treatment programs. Methadone clinic treatment programs begin to rise dramatically.

1967     A "Love-In" in honor of LSD is staged at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, California. Before LSD was made illegal, more than 40,000 patients were treated with LSD as part of psychiatric therapy.

1967     News accounts depict illicit use of PCP, then sometimes known as the "Peace Pill," in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco during the "Summer of Love." PCP reemerges in the early 1970s as a liquid, crystalline powder, and tablet.

1968     Psilocybin and Psilocybe mushrooms are made illegal in United States.

1970     The U.S. Congress passes the Controlled Substance Act (CSA). It puts strict controls on the production, import, and prescription of amphetamines. Many amphetamine forms, particularly diet pills, are removed from the over-the-counter market.

1970     Ketamine is used as a battlefield anesthetic agent during the Vietnam war (1954–1975).

1970     The U.S. Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act classifies drugs in five categories based on the effect of the drug, its medical use, and potential for abuse.

1970     Widespread use of peyote is halted by the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970. During the 1950s and 1960s, peyote was legal throughout most of the United States. During the peak of the psychedelic era, dried peyote cactus buttons were readily available through mail-order catalogs.

1971     Cigarette advertising is banned from television and radio. The nonsmokers' rights movement begins.

1971     The United Kingdom passes the Misuse of Drugs Act.

1974     2C-B is first produced by American chemist and pharmacologist Alexander Shulgin.

1974     The first hospice facility opens in the United States.

1975     Anabolic-androgenic steroids (AASs) are added to the International Olympic Committee's list of banned substances.

1975     Rohypnol, developed by the pharmaceutical firm of Hoffmann-La Roche, is first sold in Switzerland as a sleeping aid for the treatment of insomnia. Reports begin surfacing that Rohypnol is abused as a recreational or "party" drug, often in combination with alcohol and/or other drugs. It also becomes known as a date rape drug.

1976     The FBI warns that "crack" cocaine use and cocaine addiction are on the rise in the United States.

1976     Oxycodone is approved by the FDA. Various formulations follow, including drugs that combine oxycodone with either aspirin or acetaminophen.

1976     The U.S. Congress passes the Proxmire Amendments to stop the FDA from regulating vitamin and mineral supplements as drugs based on their potency or strength. This legislation also prohibits the FDA from regulating the potency of vitamin and mineral supplements.

1978     The American Indian Religious Freedom Act is passed and protects the religious traditions of Native Americans, including the use of peyote.

1978     Because of escalating reports of abuse, PCP is withdrawn completely from the U.S. market. Since 1978, no legal therapeutic use of PCP exists.

1980     The FDA proposes removing caffeine from its Generally Recognized as Safe list. Subsequently, the FDA concludes in 1992 that, after reviewing the scientific literature, no harm is posed by a person's intake of up to 100 milligrams (mg) of caffeine per day.

1980     World Health Organization (WHO) classifies khat as a drug of abuse that may produce mild to moderate psychological dependency.

1981     Alprazolam (Xanax) is introduced and subsequently becomes the most widely prescribed benzodiazepine.

1982     The FDA issues regulations for tamper-resistant packaging after seven people die in Chicago from ingesting Tylenol capsules laced with cyanide. The following year, the federal Anti-Tampering Act is passed, making it a crime to tamper with packaged consumer products.

1983     The U.S. Congress passes the Orphan Drug Act, which allows the FDA to research and market drugs necessary for treating rare diseases.

1984     Methaqualone (Quaalude, Sopor), a nonbarbiturate hypnotic that is said to give a heroin-like high without drowsiness, is banned in the United States.

1984     Nicotine gum is introduced.

1985     The FDA approves synthetic THC, or dronabinol (Marinol), to help cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.

1985     Ecstasy (MDMA) becomes illegal in the United States.

1985     The United Kingdom passes the Intoxicating Substances (Supply) Act, making it an offense to supply a product that will be abused. Subsequent legislation, the Cigarette Lighter Refill (safety) Regulations, passed in 1999, regulates the sale of purified liquefied petroleum gas, mainly butane. Butane is the substance most often involved in inhalant deaths in the United Kingdom.

1986     The United Kingdom passes the Medicines Act.

1986     The U.S. Congress passes the Anti-Drug Abuse Act. This federal law includes mandatory minimum sentences for first-time offenders with harsher penalties for possession of crack cocaine than powder cocaine.

1986     The U.S. Surgeon General's report focuses on the hazards of environmental tobacco smoke to nonsmokers.

1987     The legal drinking age is raised to 21 years in United States.

1988     Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson (1961– ) tests positive for anabolic-androgenic steroids (AASs) at the Seoul Olympic games and forfeits his gold medal to the second-place finisher, American Carl Lewis (1961– ).

1990     The FDA bans the use of GHB, a drug related to GBL, a central nervous system depressant with sedative-hypnotic and hallucinogenic properties.

1990     The U.S. Supreme Court decision in Employment Division v. Smith says that the religious use of peyote by Native Americans is not protected by the First Amendment.

1991     Anabolic-androgenic steroids (AASs) are listed as Schedule III drugs in accord with the U.S. Controlled Substances Act (CSA).

1991     Nicotine skin patches are introduced.

1992     The Karolinska Institute publishes a study that finds subjects who take creatine supplements can experience a significant increase in total muscle creatine content. Creatine is thrust onto the global athletic scene as British sprinters Linford Christie and Sally Gunnel win Olympic gold in Barcelona after reportedly training with the aid of creatine supplementation. Subsequently, a lack of well-designed clinical studies of creatine's long-term effects combined with loose regulatory standards for creatine supplement products causes some athletic associations, including the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC), to caution against its use without banning it outright.

1993     2C-B becomes widely known as a "rave" drug in United States.

1993     The first news accounts that cite the use of Rohypnol as a "date rape" drug are published. Rohypnol becomes one of more than 20 drugs that law enforcement officials assert are used in committing sexual assaults.

1993     The U.S. Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the American Indian Religious Freedom Act Amendments (AIRFA) restore the rights of Native Americans to use peyote in religious ceremonies.

1994     Cigarette industry secrets are revealed causing a storm of controversy. The list of some 700 potential additives shows 13 additives that are not allowed to be used in food.

1994     The U.S. Congress passes the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) in an effort to standardize the manufacture, labeling, composition, and safety of botanicals, herbs, and nutritional supplements. It expressly defines a dietary supplement as a vitamin, a mineral, an herb or other botanical, an amino acid, or any other "dietary substance." The law prohibits claims that herbs can treat diseases or disorders, but it allows more general health claims about the effect of herbs on the "structure or function" of the body or about the "well-being" they induce. Under the Act, supplement manufacturers are allowed to market and sell products without federal regulation. As a result, the FDA bears the burden of having to prove an herbal is unsafe before it can restrict its use.

1995     2C-B is classified as a Schedule I drug under the U.S. Controlled Substances Act (CSA).

1995     A study published by the British Journal of Urology asserts that khat (Catha edulis) chewing inhibits urine flow, constricts blood vessels, and promotes erectile dysfunction.

1995     A study by the Rand Corporation finds that every dollar spent in drug treatment saves society seven dollars in crime, policing, incarceration, and health services.

1995     The National Household Survey on Drug Abuse finds inhalants to be the second most commonly abused illicit drug by American youth ages 12–17 years, after marijuana.

1996     Anabolic-androgenic steroids (AASs) and other performance-enhancing drugs are added to the United Kingdom Misuse of Drugs Act.

1996     Nicotine nasal spray is introduced.

1996     The U.S. Drug-Induced Rape Prevention and Punishment Act makes it a felony to give an unsuspecting person a drug with the intent of committing violence, including rape. The law also imposes penalties of large fines and prison sentences of up to 20 years for importing or distributing more than one gram of date-rape drugs.

1997     2C-B is banned in Great Britain.

1997     The FDA proposes new rules regarding some ephedra dietary supplements and seeks to regulate certain products containing the drug. The FDA claims that certain ephedrine alkaloids resemble amphetamine, which stimulates the heart and nervous system. Congress rejects the FDA's attempt to subject ephedra products to regulation. In 2000, an ephedra study published in the New England Journal of Medicine shows a link between heart attacks, strokes, seizures, and mental side effects (including anxiety, tremulousness, and personality changes) with ephedra intake. Other possible mental side effects associated with ephedra are depression and paranoid psychosis.

1997     The FDA investigates the link between heart valve disease in patients using the Fen-Phen drug combination for weight loss. The FDA notes that the Fen-Phen treatment had not received FDA approval.

1997     The Institute of Medicine (IOM), a branch of the National Academy of Sciences, publishes the report Marijuana: Assessing the Science Base, which concludes that cannabinoids show significant promise as analgesics, appetite stimulants, and antiemetics. It states that further research into producing such medicines was warranted.

1997     Oregon voters approve the Death with Dignity Act, allowing terminally ill people to receive prescriptions for lethal doses of drugs to end their lives.

1997     Rohypnol is banned in the United States.

1997     The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) publishes a study indicating that ginkgo dietary supplements might be useful in treating Alzheimer's disease, sparking additional research interest.

1997     The National Institutes of Health (NIH) estimate that approximately 600,000 people in the United States are opiate-dependent, meaning they use an opiate drug daily or on a frequent basis.

1998     A study at the Psychiatric University Hospital in Zurich, Switzerland, demonstrates that psilocybin produces a psychosislike syndrome in healthy humans that is similar to early schizophrenia.

1998     Amendments made to the U.S. Higher Education Act make anyone convicted of a drug offense ineligible for federal student loans for one year up to an indefinite period of time. Such convictions may also render students ineligible for state aid.

1998     The nicotine inhaler (Nicotrol Inhaler) is introduced.

1998     The tobacco industry settles lengthy lawsuits by making a historic agreement with the States' Attorneys General called the Master Settlement Agreement (MSA). In exchange for protection from further lawsuits, the industry agrees to additional advertising restrictions and to reimburse the states billions of dollars over 25 years to pay for smoking-related illnesses.

1998     The U.S. Drug Free Communities Act offers federal money to communities to help educate citizens on the dangers on methamphetamine use and production.

1998     The U.S. Speed Trafficking Life in Prison Act increases penalties for the production, distribution, and use of methamphetamine.

1999     The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) lists GBL as a scheduled (controlled) substance.

1999     The FDA lists ketamine as a Schedule III drug.

1999     National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA) estimates that a third of the American population (then an estimated 72 million people) had tried marijuana at least once.

1999     DEA agents seize 30 gallons (113.5 liters) of a dimethyltriptamine (DMT) tea called "hoasca" from the office of the O Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao do Vegetal (UDV), a New Mexico-based religious organization with approximately 500 members. The organization subsequently sued the U.S. Government, alleging a violation of their constitutional right of freedom of religion.

2000     The Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology concludes that khat (Catha edulis), like amphetamines and ibuprofen, can relieve pain.

2000     The National Cancer Institute (NCI) estimates that 3,000 lung cancer deaths, and as many as 40,000 cardiac deaths per year among adult nonsmokers in the United States can be attributed to passive smoke or environmental tobacco smoke (ETS).

2000     The U.S. Congress considers but does not pass the Pain Relief Promotion Act, which would have amended the Controlled Substances Act to say that relieving pain or discomfort—within the context of professional medicine—is a legitimate use of controlled substances. The bill died in the Senate.

2000     The U.S. Congress Ecstasy Anti-proliferation Act increases federal sentencing guidelines for trafficking and possessing with intent to sell ecstasy (MDMA). It drastically increases jail terms for fewer numbers of pills in personal possession.

2000     The U.S. Congress passes a transportation spending bill that includes creating a national standard for drunk driving for adults at a 0.08 percent blood alcohol concentration (BAC) level. States are required to adopt this stricter standard by 2004 or face penalties. By 2001, more than half the states adopt this stricter standard.

2000     U.S. President William J. Clinton (1946– ) signs the Hillory J. Farias and Samantha Reid Date-Rape Drug Prohibition Act into law.

2001     The American Journal of Psychiatry publishes studies providing evidence that methamphetamine can cause brain damage that results in slower motor and cognitive functioning—even in users who take the drug for less than a year.

2001     International Journal of Cancer researchers assert that khat (Catha edulis) chewing, especially when accompanied by alcohol and tobacco consumption, may cause cancer.

2001     National Football League (NFL) joins the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in issuing a ban on ephedrine use. The NFL ban on ephedrine prohibits NFL players and teams from endorsing products containing ephedrine or companies that sell or distribute those products.

2001     National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) research reveals that children exposed to cocaine prior to birth sustained long-lasting brain changes. Eight years after birth, children exposed to cocaine prior to birth had detectable brain chemistry differences.

2001     A thoroughbred race horse wins a race at Suffolk Downs in Massachusetts but then tests positive for BZP (also known as Equine Ecstasy).

2001     The U.S. Supreme Court rules (unanimously) in United States vs. Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative that the cooperatives permitted under California law to sell medical marijuana to patients who had a physician's approval to use the drug were unconstitutional under federal law.

2002     Companies begin developing drink coasters and other detection kits that allow consumers to test whether drinks have been drugged. If date-rape drugs are present, a strip on the testing kit changes color when a drop of the tampered drink is placed on it.

2002     A Florida physician is convicted of manslaughter for prescribing OxyContin to four patients who died after overdosing on the powerful opiate. News reports allege that he is the first doctor ever convicted in the death of patients whose deaths were related to OxyContin use.

2002     Health Canada, the Canadian health regulatory agency, requests a voluntary recall of products containing both natural and chemical ephedra.

2002     The U.S. military's use of go-pills (dextroamphetamine) comes under fire after two U.S. Air Force pilots are involved in a friendly fire incident in Afghanistan. Four Canadian soldiers are killed and eight wounded when one of the American pilots bombs them from his F-16 after mistaking them for the enemy.

2002     In the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, the U.S. government dramatically increases funding to stockpile drugs and other agents that can be used to counter a bioterror attack.

2002     Several states, including Connecticut and Minnesota, pass laws that ban teachers from recommending psychotropic drugs, especially Ritalin, to parents.

2002     A U.S. federal district court judge rejects a U.S. Justice Department attempt to overturn Oregon's physician-assisted suicide law. The Justice Department had claimed that the state law violated the federal Controlled Substances Act.

2002-2003     During the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) scare, many people visit Chinese herbalists to purchase a mixture of herbs to help protect them from the disease.

2003     More than 2,200 pounds (998 kilograms) of khat are seized at the Dublin Airport in Ireland. The bundles were being sent to New York from London.

2003     The FDA approves the use of Prozac in depressed children as young as seven years old.

2003     The U.S. government implements the Reducing Americans' Vulnerability to Ecstasy Act.

2003     Steve Bechler, a pitcher with the Baltimore Orioles, collapses during a preseason workout in Florida and dies the next day. His death is linked to the use of ephedra.

2003     More than 3,500 children in the United States are involved in meth lab incidents during the year.

2004     Australian police begin stopping motorists randomly to conduct saliva tests to check for various illegal drugs, including marijuana and amphetamines.

2004     Adderall XR is approved by the FDA for use by adults with ADHD.

2004     The FDA announces that "black box" labeling of antidepressants will become mandatory.

2004     The federal court case regarding the O Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao do Vegetal religious sect concludes with the group winning the right to use an hallucinogenic tea in its religious services.

2004     The FDA bans the use of ephedra in the United States following reports of more than 150 deaths linked to the supplement.

2004     The Warner Bros. movie Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed contains a scene showing Shaggy taking a hit of nitrous oxide off a whipped cream can. The scene angers many parents who have lost children due to inhalant abuse.

2004-2005     BZP is still being sold over-the-counter in New Zealand as an herbal party pill. In 2005, the DEA officially classifies BZP as a Schedule I drug in the United States.

2004-2005     After the fall of the Taliban government in Afghanistan in late 2001, opium poppy production begins to soar by 2004. Street heroin becomes purer and available in larger quantities. Prices reach a twenty-year low.

2005     Baseball players and managers are called to testify before Congress about steroid use in the Major Leagues.

2005     The Partnership for a Drug-Free America releases a study showing that prescription drug abuse among teens is growing rapidly. Teens are dubbed "Generation Rx."

2005     The U.S. Supreme Court agrees to hear a case involving Oregon's physician-assisted suicide law.

2005     Utah-based Nutraceutical International successfully challenges the FDA ban on ephedra in federal court. U.S. judge Tena Campbell rules that the FDA has failed to prove that the company's ephedra-based product is unsafe.

2005     The FDA launches a pilot program using high-tech radio frequency identification (RFID) tags to track the movement of bottles of the most addictive prescription painkillers.

2005     The Canadian government joins several European nations (most notably the Netherlands) in a pilot program to give free heroin to heroin addicts to help them stabilize their lives, eventually overcome addiction, and prevent them from contracting diseases by sharing dirty needles.

2005     The U.S. Supreme Court rules against the use of medical marijuana. At the time of the ruling, ten states allow medical marijuana to be used by cancer, AIDS, and other patients suffering severe pain when prescribed by a physician.

2005     The FDA issues a public health advisory about the use of fentanyl skin patches after receiving reports that people have died or experienced serious side effects after overdosing on the drug.

2005     The new opiate drug Palladone is pulled off the market for further research by its maker, Purdue Pharma.

2005     Oregon lawmakers vote to make over-the-counter cold and allergy remedies containing pseudoephedrine available by prescription only beginning in mid-2006. The move is taken to make it harder for illegal methamphetamine "cooks" to obtain the ingredient. A dozen other states move the product "behind the counter."