1886 Washington Territory enacts the Alcohol Education Act.
The 1885-86 session of the assembly passed an Alcohol Education Act, requiring that the “effects” of alcohol and narcotics be taught in the public schools. Under the law, the county treasurer was to withhold county funds from those schools that did not comply. Clark, Norman H. The Dry Years: Prohibition & Social Change in Washington. Seattle: University of Washington Press, c1988; pg. 35.
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The Harrison Act required all manufacturers and purveyors of narcotics to register their activity with the federal government, to keep records of their sales and to pay a tax on each transaction. Effective Drug Control: Toward a New Legal Framework: State-Level Regulation as a Workable Alternative to the “War on Drugs.” Seattle: King County Bar Association Drug Policy Project, 2005; pg. 18.
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1914 Washington State votes for statewide Prohibition.
Initiative Measure Number 3, the “statewide prohibition initiative,” brought out more voters in 1914, an off year election, than had voted for any other issue or candidate in the history of the state. Clark, Norman H. The Dry Years: Prohibition & Social Change in Washington. Seattle: University of Washington Press, c1988.
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1920-1933 Prohibition, the 18th Amendment to the Constitution.
1922 Narcotic Drugs Import and Export Act.
The Act set strict quotas on the quantity of drugs that could be imported into the United States. That measure allowed possession of narcotics without a prescription to become presumptive evidence of having illegally imported drugs. Effective Drug Control: Toward a New Legal Framework: State-Level Regulation as a Workable Alternative to the “War on Drugs.” Seattle: King County Bar Association Drug Policy Project, 2005; pg. 83.
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1925 Linder V. United States decriminilizes doctors prescribing drugs for addicts.
In 1924 Dr. Charles O. Linder, completing a lifetime of honorable practice in Spokane, WA, was induced by a plant from the Treasury Dept. to write a prescription for 4 tablets of cocaine and morphine. Several Treasury agents thereupon descended on his office on a Saturday afternoon, stamped through his waiting room crowded with patients, and broke in on him in the midst of a consultation. He was indicted in the Berhman formula, convicted, sentenced, and lost his intermediate appeal to the Circuit Court. But Dr. Linder persisted. The Supreme Court's unanimous decision came on April 13, 1925, in which his conviction was reversed and he was completely vindicated. Shaffer Library of Drug Policy. The Drug Hang Up, America's Fifty-Year Folly, by Rufus King. Chapter 6: "Dr. Behrman, Dr. Linder, and the High Court."
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The Court declared that addicts were 'diseased and proper subjects for treatment' and that it was not illegal for a physician acting in good faith and according to fair medical standards to prescribe moderate amounts of narcotics for purposes of alleviating withdrawal symptoms. White, William L. Slaying the Dragon: The History of Addiction Treatment and Recovery in America. Bloomingon, IL: Chestnut Heath Systems, 1998, pg. 113.
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The Court also expressed it's view that drug addiction is a disease and that relieving the "conditions incident to the addiction" may be medically appropriate. Effective Drug Control: Toward a New Legal Framework: State-Level Regulation as a Workable Alternative to the "War on Drugs." Seattle: King County Bar Association Drug Policy Project, 2005; pg. 20.
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1930 Porter Act establishes the Bureau of Narcotics.
The Act established the Bureau of Narcotics to be housed in the Treasury Department. The agency was created to take up enforcement of the Harrison Act, to streamline the bureaucracy and to represent the United States in foreign conferences. Effective Drug Control: Toward a New Legal Framework: State-Level Regulation as a Workable Alternative to the “War on Drugs.” Seattle: King County Bar Association Drug Policy Project, 2005; pg 21.
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1930 Harry J. Anslinger is appointed the first "Drug Czar" as head of the newly created Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN).
Harry J. Anslinger is widely considered to be the first United States 'drug czar.' He held office as the Assistant Prohibition Commissioner in the Bureau of Prohibition, before being appointed as the first Commissioner of the Treasury Department's Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN). Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. "Harry J. Anslinger."
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1931 Dr. Thomas P. Ratigan, Jr. opens the Public Health Institute in Seattle to administer morphine injections to heroin addicts.
Dr. Ratigan scrupulously observed the cardinal distinction, confused by the medical profession and distorted by the Narcotics Division, between ambulatory in the sense of being afoot and at liberty, and ambulatory meaning provided with drugs for self-administration. Addicts who presented themselves at the Public Health Institute received an appropriated dosage by injection. At no time, except for patients whose addiction was genuinely related to pain associated with other illness, did Dr. Ratigan permit addicted persons to take drugs or prescriptions for drugs off the premises. Schaffer Library of Drug Policy. The Drug Hang Up, America's Fifty-Year Folly, by Rufus King. Chapter 7: "Dr. Ratigan's Lonely Battle."
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1932 Washington voters repeal Prohibition with Initiative 61.
Initiative Measure Number 61 won in a landslide, 62% of the vote cast on the initiative was wet. Clark, Norman H. The Dry Years: Prohibition & Social Change in Washington. Seattle: University of Washington Press, c1988.
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1933 The Supreme Court upheld the Veteran’s Administration policy which defined alcoholism as a form of “willful misconduct.”
1933 Prohibition ends by passage of the 21st Amendment to the Constitution.
Even before President Roosevelt issued the final repeal proclamation, the Seattle City Council prepared an emergency ordinance providing for the sale of beer and wines of up to 16 % alcohol content. Sale was prohibited within two miles of the University of Washington, and within 500 feet of any grade or high school. HistoryLink.org: The Online Encyclopedia of Washington State History, “Prohibition Ends on December 5, 1933.”
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1933 Creation of the Washington State Liquor Control Board.
The Steele Act, Senate Bill 7, created the Washington State Liquor Control Board. Besides regulating the manufacture and distribution of all alcoholic beverages, the Board could license restaurants and hotels to sell beer and wine by the glass, in a ratio of food/beverage sales that the Board would determine. Clark, Norman H. The Dry Years: Prohibition & Social Change in Washington. Seattle: University of Washington Press, c1988.
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RCW 66.08.012: There shall be a board, known as the "Washington State Liquor Control Board," consisting of three members, to be appointed by the governor, with the consent of the senate, who shall each be paid an annual salary to be fixed by the governor in accordance with the provisions of RCW 43.03.040. The governor may, in his discretion, appoint one of the members as chairman of the board, and a majority of the members shall constitute a quorum of the board. [1961 c 307 § 7; 1949 c 5 § 8; 1945 c 208 § 1; 1937 c 225 § 1; 1933 ex.s. c 62 § 63; Rem. Supp. 1949 § 7306-63. Formerly RCW 43.66.010.]
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Washington is considered one of the strictest “control” states in the country, a system overseen by the Washington State Liquor Control Board. Eighteen states are “Control States,” a model in which the state is directly involved in the distribution and/or sale of liquor. Effective Drug Control: Toward a New Legal Framework: State-Level Regulation as a Workable Alternative to the “War on Drugs.” Seattle: King County Bar Association Drug Policy Project, 2005; pg. 64-65.
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1935 U.S. Public Health Service pioneers program for drug abuse research.
NIDA traces its beginnings to a small research unit at a U.S. Public Health Service hospital in Lexington, Kentucky. The unit was created in 1935 to study and treat heroin addiction among Federal prisoners and others who voluntarily admitted themselves to the facility. That research unit, which conducted pioneering studies into the nature of the addictive process, essentially spawned the science of drug abuse research. The unit eventually became known as the Addiction Research Center and became NIDA’s Intramural Research Program (IRP) when the Institute was created in 1974. National Institute on Drug Abuse: 25 Years of Progress in Drug Abuse Research. A Special Supplement to NIDA’s Bimonthly Newsletter NIDA Notes; pg. 5.
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1935 Shadel Hospital opens in Seattle.
Aversion Therapy was introduced in Seattle in 1935 by Dr. Charles Shadel, several months before the advent of A.A. Seattle Times, “For the majority of street alcoholics, ‘AA’ doesn’t work.” 7/10/87.
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Charles A. Shadel was a pioneer in the field of treating alcoholism. In 1935, Dr. Shadel provided a colonial mansion in Seattle to offer the warm and personal comforts of home to those who were then considered society's outcasts - the alcoholics. Schick Shadel Hospital. History of Schick Shadel Hospital.
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Aversion conditioning is perhaps the oldest approach to abstinence-oriented alcoholism treatment. The ancient Romans placed spiders or other repellent objects in the bottom of the wine cup to be discovered by the drinker after draining the vessel. In the United States, in 1935, Charles Shadel founded the hospital system that still bears his name (now Schick Shadel hospitals). He and W. L. Voegtlin developed a pharmacologic version technique that still forms the basis of treatment at the Schick Shadel Hospitals and at the Raleigh Hills Hospitals. The first Shadel Hospital was founded in Seattle, Washington. In 1943, Shadel opened a second hospital in the Raleigh Hills section of Portland, Oregon. This was later sold and formed the basis of the present Raleigh Hills Hospital system. Although aversion conditioning was originally, and still is, a major factor in treatment, both hospital systems employ other therapeutic modalities as well. Emetine Aversion: In 1940, Voegtlin first reported on the techniques in which emetine-induced nausea was paired with the sight, taste, and smell of a variety of alcoholic beverages. Emphasis was also placed on the temporal relationship between the unconditioned stimulus (nausea), and the conditioned stimuli (sight, smell, and taste of alcoholic beverages). Pentothol Interview: In the mid 1940’s the technique of the pentothal interview was introduced into the Schick Shadel Hospital treatment program. The objective is not sleep but the attainment of a state of relaxation sufficient to enable the patient to talk freely and to bring out any emotional or environmental factors that may be contributing to the drinking problem. During the pentothal interview patients are less likely to block material that is in some way unpleasant to them. Smith, J.W. “Treatment of Alcoholism in Aversion Conditioning Hospitals.” Chapter 72, Encyclopedic Handbook of Alcoholism. E.M. Pattison & E. Kaufman (Eds.), New York: Gardner Press, 1982.
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Schick-Shadel Hospital.
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1935 Alcoholics Anonymous is founded.
A.A. had its beginnings in 1935 at Akron, Ohio, as the outcome of a meeting between Bill W., a New York stockbroker, and Dr. Bob S., an Akron surgeon. Both had been hopeless alcoholics. Prior to that time, Bill and Dr. Bob had each been in contact with the Oxford Group, a mostly nonalcoholic fellowship that emphasized universal spiritual values in daily living. In that period, the Oxford Groups in America were headed by the noted Episcopal clergyman, Dr. Samuel Shoemaker. Under this spiritual influence, and with the help of an old-time friend, Ebby T., Bill had gotten sober and had then maintained his recovery by working with other alcoholics, though none of these had actually recovered. Meanwhile, Dr. Bob’s Oxford Group membership at Akron had not helped him enough to achieve sobriety. When Dr. Bob and Bill finally met, the effect on the doctor was immediate. This time, he found himself face to face with a fellow sufferer who had made good. Bill emphasized that alcoholism was a malady of mind, emotions and body. This all-important fact he had learned from Dr. William D. Silkworth of Towns Hospital in New York, where Bill had often been a patient. Though a physician, Dr. Bob had not known alcoholism to be a disease. Responding to Bill’s convincing ideas, he soon got sober, never to drink again. The founding spark of A.A. had been struck. Alcoholics Anonymous Historical Data: Birth of A.A. and its Growth in U.S./Canada.
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1937 Marijuana Tax Act.
This measure did not actually prohibit possession or sale of marijuana; rather, any person importing, selling or otherwise handling cannabis was required to register with the government and pay a transfer tax on each transaction. Those without the fiscal transfer stamp could be fined and jailed for up to twenty years. Effective Drug Control: Toward a New Legal Framework: State-Level Regulation as a Workable Alternative to the “War on Drugs.” Seattle: King County Bar Association Drug Policy Project, 2005; pg. 23.
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The anti-marijuana law of 1937 was largely the federal government’s response to political pressure from enforcement agencies and other alarmed groups who feared the use and spread of marihuana by “Mexicans.” Schaffer Library of Drug Policy. “The History of the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937”, (by David F. Musto, M.D.)
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Schaffer Library of Drug Policy “The Marijuana Tax Act of 1937,” (Transcripts of Congressional Hearings). Additional Statement of H.J. Anslinger, Commissioner of Narcotics.
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