For a time in the history of this republic we had a dope fiend's paradise. Opium and morphine were legally and conveniently on sale at low prices. Hundreds of patent medicines containing opium and morphine were on the market. Finally, the Harrison Act. passed in 1014, limited the addiction-producing drugs imported in the U. S. to the amount necessary for medical use. In 1924 Congress tightened up the Harrison Act by prohibiting the import of heroin altogether, even for medical use.
Federal laws prohibit the dispensing of most drugs today without a prescription.
A recent study published in the journal of the American Medical Association estimates 31 percent of the elderly make clinically serious, sometimes lifethreatening errors, in the use of prescription drugs. Recent studies conclude conservatively that in the U. S. 12 to 17 percent of elderly patients admitted to hospitals are suffering from drug-induced problems. When smoked, marijuana quickly enters the blood stream and acts on the brain and nervous system. It affects the user's mood. It also may cause confusion and anxiety and even damage the lungs.