The underlying motivations for the 1908 legislation controlling opium importation and the legislation restricting sale of specific drugs in proprietary medicines came together in 1911. There are several precedents and I will not cover them here. Suffice it to say that the Opium Act was seen as inadequate for controlling opium, and the PPM was …
Canada’s (arguably) more important first drug law
In a previous post I provided the report from Deputy Minister of Labour, William Lyon Mackenzie King, which is often cited as instigating Canada's drug prohibition regime. Such a perspective is a distortion of the complex history of drugs in Canada. There are a few things to clarify. First, prior to 1908, most drugs that …
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What many call Canada’s first drug law
In 1907, there was a race riot in Vancouver's Chinatown. A bunch of white people, threatened by the arrival of a boat of Japanese people seeking work, rampaged through Chinatown (because racists discriminate, indiscriminately). The resulting property damage led to a commission of investigation by the Deputy Minister of Labour, a man named William Lyon …
Drug history resources for an uncertain future
Since this blog is supposed to be about drug history, and since I've been woefully negligent in "blogging," I figured I'd take the opportunity to turn it, however, temporarily, into a teaching resource. In the next few weeks I'm going to post or link to useful resources on the history of drugs, both in Canada …
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Pain and perception
So today in response to an interview I had on CBC and some tweeting that was going around some mysterious person stated "The human body is not meant to be pain free." I refuse to engage in troll-y debates, so I figured I'd do what I promised yesterday and begin to dig into some of …
Fentanyl crisis and historical perspectives
Over the past month or so I've been mulling over the current opioid crisis and what it means, and of course what history can tell us about it. It culminated in an op ed in the Globe and Mail entitled "Why is everyone talking about painkillers, but not about pain?" I felt that this article in …
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Cannabis and liquor regulation
If the weather holds I'll be off to Saskatoon tomorrow for a symposium on cannabis legalization. I have been asked to do a keynote based on my observations and research on the connections between liquor control and cannabis legalization. It's something I have looked at a few times, so it will be fun to bounce …
Cannabis legalization, liquor control, and bias
Just an update on the cannabis file. There has been considerable interest in this topic since, well, the past few years I suppose. But after the Liberals came back to power, with Justin Trudeau making a clear argument for legalization, not just decriminalization, the attention has been ramped up. I've had a chance to speak …
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Good drugs and their bad tendencies
After several decades of working on this (ok, worked on it in the 90s then took some time away) my book, When Good Drugs Go Bad: Opium, Medicine, and the Origins of Canada's Drug Laws has been released. You can order a copy of the hardcover here. And for reference, here is a picture of …
No need to smoke em if you got em
Smoking is considered a pariah activity. Smokers, driven by "Clean Air" laws, zealous public health advocates and self righteous non smokers do their thing on the edge of activity. Back doors, 9 metres away from doors, unsheltered, cowering, hiding, heads down, grimaced. This is how health messaging becomes moral shaming. I'm not a smoker, find …
