The concept of the Barbiturate is a drug that slows down the nervous system.  Barbiturates were prescribed as a way for people to relax, get sleep, or even cope with being through its side effects of numbness and the general depressant effect it had on the nervous system.  Barbiturates had always been consumed in large quantities, but the 1960s saw a massive increase in consumption, as well as an abuse in prescription of Barbiturates.  Celebrity death linked to the use of Barbiturates such as Marilyn Monroe and Jimi Hendrix led to an almost designer status to Barbiturates, causing their consumption to increase even more.  Government oversight became the tool through which Barbiturates no longer became prescribed in such large quantities. In 1970, Congress passed the  Passage of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).  This act represented legislation that restricted access to barbiturates in the United States.  It did not necessarily stop the consumption of the drug and its appeal (Elvis Presley's death later on was linked the drug's use.)  Yet, the act represented how the drug would no longer be prescribed in such large quantities as before.