Regulating Drugs In The 20th Century

304 Words2 Pages
There are two things that prompted the idea of regulating drugs in the 20th century. They were the abuse of the drug and the drug use among minority groups. Cocaine and opium were the main drugs used for treating pain the soldiers were in and women with female problems. These two drugs were the first to be patent because of the addiction that is was causing. Today patent means it has to be registered with the government. But back then paten meant that they were marketed by traveling salesman. “…paten medicines was the traveling medicine show,…with a “pitch man” whose function was to convince the gathering crowd to but his patent medicine” (Levinthal, C.F., 2012).And the ingredients did not have to be written on the label. Some many people were