The prevalence and trend of drug addiction in the United States and factors influencing it (1924) (2006)

The appearance in 1924 of "The Prevalence and Trend of Drug Addiction in the United States and Factors Influencing It," by Lawrence Kolb and A.G. Du Mez, reflected a growing federal involvement in the regulation of addictive psychoactive drugs, especially federally funded and overseen addiction research Passage of the Harrison Narcotic Act in 1914 brought the federal government into a realm previously reserved for the states: the regulation of medical practice. The law prohibited the dispensing or use of morphine, heroin, cocaine, and several other drugs except as administered or prescribed by a physician. Assessing the prevalence of addiction to these drugs and developing reliable methods for determining such prevalence were critical for understanding the seriousness of the problem and measuring the success or failure of enforcement efforts. The article's discussion of prevalence patterns, its psychological characterization of addicts whose initial drug use was for pleasure rather than medical treatment, and its discussion of individual drug compounds foreshadow later developments in addiction research as it came to embrace psychiatric, psychological, pharmacological, and sociological investigations. As he worked on this article, U.S. Public Health Service psychiatrist Dr. Lawrence Kolb was also engaged in sustained research into the psychological nature of addiction, which would form the basis of a set of influential articles in 1925. Kolb was named Medical Director of the PHS Narcotic Hospital in Lexington, KY, at its opening in 1935.-,The Addiction Research Center at Lexington carried out important addiction research and provided the training grounds for many leading drug researchers who helped shape the research agenda of the National Institute on Drug Abuse from its founding in 1974. Although co-authored the article primarily reflected Kolb's views. PHS pharmacologist A.G. Du Mez had contributed to a 1919 Treasury Department report that produced an exaggerated estimate of 1,000,000 opiate addicts in the U.S. For the 1924 article, Kolb and Do Mez analyzed physician surveys, imported quantities of opiates, and other sources to arrive at a more judicious estimate of 110,000.