Americans have always used drugs that affect the mind, especially alcohol. And for as long as there has been drug use, there have been attempts to regulate, control, and even prohibit this use through law. Many changes have occurred in drug and alcohol regulation over time, but certain basic impulses behind control have played a continuous role in the history of drug policy in the United States.

Alcohol: the Road to Prohibition

On January 16, 1920, the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution took effect, one year after its final ratification by the states. The amendment read in part: "the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States . . . for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited." This experiment in national alcohol prohibition lasted...