Pure Food and Drug Act
| Major U.S. Federal drug control laws |
|---|
| 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act |
| Regulates labeling of products containing certain drugs including cocaine and heroin |
| 1914 Harrison Narcotics Tax Act |
| Regulates opiates and cocaine |
| 1937 Marihuana Tax Act |
| Required Taxation of marijuana |
| 1961 Convention on Narcotics |
| Treaty to control marijuana |
| 1970 Controlled Substance Act |
| Scheduling list for drugs |
The Pure Food and Drug Act of June 30, 1906, is a United States federal law that provided federal inspection of meat products and forbade the manufacture, sale, or transportation of adulterated food products and poisonous patent medicines.[1] The Act arose due to public education and exposés from Muckrakers such as Upton Sinclair and Samuel Hopkins Adams, social activist Florence Kelley, researcher Harvey W. Wiley, and President Theodore Roosevelt.
Contents |
[edit] Labeling of habit-forming drugs
The Pure Food and Drug Act required that certain special drugs, including alcohol, cocaine, heroin, morphine, and cannabis, be accurately labeled with contents and dosage. Previously many drugs had been sold as patent medicines with secret ingredients or misleading labels. Cocaine, heroin, cannabis, and other such drugs continued to be legally available without prescription as long as they were labeled. It is estimated that sale of patent medicines containing opiates decreased by 33% after labeling was mandated.[2] The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 is cited by drug policy reform advocates such as James P. Gray as a successful model for re-legalization of currently prohibited drugs by requiring accurate labels, monitoring of purity and dose, and consumer education.[3]
[edit] Coca-Cola
The Pure Food and Drug Act was initially concerned with ensuring products were labeled correctly. Later efforts were made to outlaw certain products that were not safe, followed by efforts to outlaw products which were safe but not effective. For example, there was an attempt to outlaw Coca-Cola in 1909 because of its excessive caffeine; caffeine replaced cocaine as the active ingredient in Coca-Cola in 1903. In the case United States v. Forty Barrels and Twenty Kegs of Coca-Cola, the judge found that Coca-Cola had a right to use caffeine as it saw fit, although Coca-Cola eventually lost when the government appealed to the Supreme Court.[4] It reached a settlement with the United States government to reduce the caffeine amount.
[edit] Food and Drug Administration
The 1906 Act paved the way for the eventual creation of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and is generally considered to be that agency's founding date, though the agency existed before the law was passed and was not named FDA until later. "While the Food and Drug act remains a foundational law of the FDA mission, it's not the law that created the FDA. [Initially,] the Bureau of Chemistry (the precursor to the FDA) regulated food safety. In 1927 the Bureau was reorganized into the Food, Drug, and Insecticide Administration and the Bureau of Chemistry and Soils. The FDIA was renamed the FDA in 1930."[5]
The law itself was largely replaced by the much more comprehensive Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938.
[edit] See also
- Food Administration
- Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act
- Food Quality Protection Act
- Meat Inspection Act
[edit] References
- ^ Ayers, Edward A. (August 1907). "What The Food Law Saves Us From: Adulterations, Substitutions, Chemical Dyes, and Other Evils". The World's Work: A History of Our Time XIV: 9316–9322. http://books.google.com/books?id=sojNAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA9316. Retrieved 2009-07-10.
- ^ Musto, David F. (1999 3rd edition). The American Disease: Origins of Narcotic Control. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195125096. http://books.google.com/?id=7VrQy2d8PxYC.
- ^ Gray, James P. (2001). Why our drug laws have failed and what we can do about it: a judicial indictment of the War on Drugs. Temple University Press. ISBN 9781566398602. http://books.google.com/?id=_fTD0QCtuRIC.
- ^ "Pop psychology: The man who saved Coca-Cola", by Ludy T. Benjamin, Monitor on Psychology, February 2009, Vol 40, No. 2, p. 18
- ^ Sharrock, Justine (2011-01-11) Explained: Jared Loughner’s Grammar Obsession, Mother Jones
[edit] Further reading
- Barkan, I. D. (January 1985). "Industry invites regulation: the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906". American Journal of Public Health 75 (1): 18–26. doi:10.2105/AJPH.75.1.18. PMC 1646146. PMID 3881052. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=1646146.
- The State Of Connecticut. Connecticut Agricultural & Experiment Station Annual Reports. New Haven. For years preceding and following passage of the Act:
- Dunn, Arthur Wallace (September 1911). "Dr. Wiley And Pure Food, First Article: A Twenty-Year's Fight, The Long Struggle Against "Influence" To Enact The Law, The Harder Struggle To Enforce It, An Amazing Story of Obstruction". The World's Work: A History of Our Time XXII: 14958–14965. http://books.google.com/books?id=rHAAAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA14958. Retrieved 2009-07-10.
- Dunn, Arthur Wallace (November 1911). "Dr. Wiley And Pure Food, Second Article: The Chief Of The Bureau Of Chemistry As Washington Knows Him". The World's Work: A History of Our Time XXIII: 29–40. http://books.google.com/books?id=Vv--PfedzLAC&pg=PA29. Retrieved 2009-07-10.
- Greeley, Arthur Philip (1907). The Food and Drugs Act, June 30, 1906: A Study with Text of the Act, Annotated, the Rules and Regulations for the Enforcement of the Act, Food Inspection, Decisions and Official Food Standards. Washington, D.C.: J. Byrne & Company. http://books.google.com/?id=ngQRAAAAYAAJ.
