View the timeline below to learn more about how mainstream society has viewed the use and misuse of grog and drugs throughout history. | ||
10,000 BC: One of the earliest records of the use of drugs is 6,400 B, when beer and berry wines were used. Cannabis also has a long history, with records of use 10,000 years ago in Taiwan. Opium was used by the ancient Hebrews and Babylonians.
8,000 BC: The earliest known fabric is woven from hemp.
5,000 BC: Earliest recorded use of opium, by the Sumerians.
3,500 BC: Egyptian brewery built
3,000 BC: Origin of the first use of tea in China.
2,000 BC: First record of prohibitionism, as an Egyptian priest writes to his pupil, “I, thy superior, forbid thee to go to the taverns. Thou art degraded like beasts.”
AD 1,000: Opium from Egypt is first introduced to China by Arab traders.
AD 1,000: Widespread use of opium in China and the East.
1493: Tobacco introduced to Europe by Columbus.
1525: The physician Paracelsus, introduces opium tincture, or laudanum, to medical practice.
1680: British physician, Thomas Sydenham, sings the praises of laudanum: “Among the remedies which it has pleased the Almighty God to give to man to relieve his sufferings, none is so universal and efficacious as opium.”
1691: Luneberg, Germany introduces the death penalty for smoking tobacco.
1736: The English Gin Act is introduced with the intention of making alcoholic spirits so expensive that “the poor will not be able to launch into the excessive use of them.” The Act does nothing to quell the use of illicit alcohol.
1762: Thomas Dover introduces “Dover’s Powders” for the treatment of gout. The active ingredient of the preparation is opium.
1800: Cannabis is introduced to France by Napoleon, returning from Egpyt. This engenders a subculture of users and “Le Club Haschischins”.
1805: Morphine is isolated by German chemist Friedrich Serturner.
1839-42: The first opium war. This was a result of conflict over the opium trade between China and England. China lost.
1844: Cocaine in its pure form is isolated.
1856: The invention of the hypodermic needle.
1884: Sigmund Freud self-medicates with cocaine, proclaiming its benefits of an “exhilaration and lasting euphoria”.
1894: The report of the British Indian Hemp Drug Commission concludes: “There is no evidence of any weight regarding the mental and moral injuries from the moderate use of these drugs. Moderation does not lead to excess in hemp any more than it does in alcohol.”
1898: Heroin is synthesized in Germany by the Bayer company, and hailed as safe and “free from addiction-forming properties”.
1903: Caffeine replaces cocaine in Coca-Cola.
1912-14: The Hague Opium Conventions recommend international controls on the opium trade.
1914: The Harrison Act imposes a system of taxes and registration on cocoa and opium to try to control their sale and distribution.
1920s: The development of amphetamines, as an alternative to ephedrine for the treatment of bronchial spasm.
1920-1933: The alcohol prohibition era.
1938: Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) is synthesized by DR Albert Hoffman, a chemist at Sandoz Laboratories, in Switzerland.
1941: Chinese nationalist leader, Chiang Kai-Shek attempts to stamp out opium production, introducing the death penalty for cultivation, manufacturing or trafficking.
1956: The American Narcotics Control Act allows for the death penalty for drug offences.
1961: The Untied Nations recommend treatment in a “nursing home” for “known users of drugs” and “unconvicted drug addicts and dangerous alcoholics”.
1968: Record profits by tobacco companies, as sales of cigarettes boom, with Americans smoking over 500 billion cigarettes.
1968: There are 500,000 regular users of the barbiturate tranquilisers in Britain.
1970s: In some Australia states cannabis laws are reformed to allow for personal use. Over the same period penalties for drug traffickers are increased.
1980s: The emergence of HIV/AIDS, recognized as a disease affecting injecting users. In Australia, the concept of harm reduction is increasingly adopted as an alternative to strict prohibitionist polices against drugs.
1990s: In Australia, further amendments are made to cannabis laws. The community begins to discuss controlled trials of heroin and injecting rooms.