Jackson Nigg

Elliot Coyle

English 130

4/16/20

Annotated Bibliography 

Back up articles are underlined

Kalant, Harold. “Drug Classification: Science, Politics, Both or Neither?” Wiley Online Library, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 9 Feb. 2010, onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1360- 0443.2009.02830.x.

Thakker, Jo, and Russil Durrant. Substance Use and Abuse: Cultural and Historical Perspectives. Sage Publications, 2003.

Abigail Creitz, “Review.” Drugs in American Society: An Encyclopedia of History, Politics, Culture, and the Law by Nancy E. Marion and Willard M. Oliver. American Library Association, 17 Apr 2020.

Hoffmann, Diane E., and Weber, Eilen. “Medical Marijuana and the Law.(Controlled Substances Act of 1970).” The New England Journal of Medicine 362.13 (2010): 1453. Web.

This article fromThe New England Journal of Medicine covers the recent changes made by state governments to legalize marijuana. It states that the American Medical Association (AMA) has reached a resolution in urging the revaluation of labeling marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug. It is hoped that this would lead to research and development of cannabinoid based medicine. This supports my thesis that  drugs have been banned based on little to no evidence of them being tested in clinical trials. Along with this in October of 2009 the Department of Justice released a statement to U.S. Attorneys saying that federal resources should not be used to prosecute people whose actions comply with their state’s laws. This could be interpreted of the national government not having confidence in their ruling of these substances.

Torgoff, Martin. Can’t Find My Way Home: America in the Great Stoned Age. Simon and Schuster, 2004.

In this novel describes the period of time where drug culture was beginning to spike up at an enormous rate. During this period of time President John Kennedy pro the new frontier and NASA made it to the moon. Meanwhile the drug culture in the US skyrocketed. It became more normalized to use these psychoactive drugs and users began to do these drugs as a sort of inner experiment. This book neglects the constant war on drugs and its effects overtime. This will assist me in my essay as it provides a new perspective to the war on drugs that isn’t motivated by bad stigma.

The Controlled Substances Act of 1970: a BNDD Manual for Researchers. U.S. Dept. of Justice, Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, 1972.

The Controlled Substances Act of 1970 contains 8 characteristics that substances can have in order to be banned. These include its potential for abuse,its history and pattern of abuse, alone with the scope, duration, and significance of abuse. Along with this there is a mechanism for substance to be moved between schedules but has been rarely used. If necessary this can be initiated by the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Health and Human Services. Furthermore in some cases parties can petition to get the drug reviewed. This supports my thesis that the government has banned drugs with little to no evidence due to the fact no drugs have been moved through schedules even with new evidence. 

O’Reilly, Andrew. “Ocasio-Cortez Wants to Make It Easier to Study Magic Mushrooms, Other Psychedelic Drugs.” Fox News, FOX News Network, 9 June 2019, www.foxnews.com/politics/ocasio-cortez-introduces-amendment-to-make-it-easier-to-study-magic-mushrooms-and-other-psychedelic-drugs.

Andrew O’Reilly’s article published by Fox News summarizes the decision made by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to decriminalize “magic mushrooms” inorder to make it more possible to have professional studies conducted with them. This relates to the idea that  the Scheduling of these drugs needs to be challenged due to the lack of evidence justifying their legal status. It is interpreted by the government that if they were to fund research they would be promoting the legalization of Schedule 1 drugs. When in reality they are denying the opportunity to learn about the potentially large benefits of these drugs. O’Reilly’s article supports my stance that there is a severe lack of justification surrounding the banning of these drugs, and the evidence that was used in banning these drugs is outdated. Parallelling this Carlos Plazola,the chair of the group Decriminalize Nature Oakland, presented the fact that “These plants are being recommended pretty extensively undercover,underground,by doctors and therapists.” Backing the idea that trained professionals are aware of the possible benefits. 

“PRIVATE INSTITUTIONS USED IN CAL EFFORT TO CONTROL BEHAVIOR.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 2 Aug. 1977, www.nytimes.com/1977/08/02/archives/private-institutions-used-in-cia-effort-to-control-behavior-25year.html.

In this news article a 25 year long, $25 million dollar program was uncovered in which the C.I.A. attempted to control the human mind. Dr. Carl Pfeiffer was a pharmacologist that conducted experiments for the C.I.A. on prisoners in a federal penitentiary in Atlanta along with the Bordentown Reformatory in New Jersey. In a telephone interview he released a statement that from 1955 to 1964 he was paid $25,000 dollars a year to conduct these tests. These experiments were spurred when Russians and Chinese were reported to have developed mind control devices. This was later proved to be untrue. This source supports my argument that the government had mostly used these banned substances for malicious purposes. It could be argued that this gave these substances a negative connotation in the government’s eyes.