SOCB50H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 4: Prohibition Of Drugs, Social Forces, Western World
Document Summary
Panic and indifference the politics of canada"s drug laws. The social origins of canadian narcotic drug prohibition. Examines process that led to first canadian narcotic drug legislation: opium act 1908, opium and drug act 1911. Mark early stages in manufacture of social problem. 1908 act result of convergence of several social forces operating in canada at turn of century: general climate of moral reform, international movement to stop opium trade to china, hostility towards chinese immigrants in canada. Strength of pressures combined to make anti-opium statute inventible: needed someone to give concrete expression to converging forces. Mackenzie king to vancouver 1907 to assess claims for damages arising from anti-asiatic riots: assumed credit as initiator of anti-opium statute. Once first statute passed, law enforcement agents and others interested in extension entered into definitional process. 1908 act drafted - limited in scope proved to be ineffective in suppressing opium smoking.
