THE ROCKY ROAD TO A DRUG-FREE TENNESSEE - A HISTORY OF THE EARLY REGULATION OF COCAINE AND THE OPIATES, 1897-1913

In nineteenth-century Tennessee, as in the rest of the South, opium an d cocaine constituted an integral part of the pharmacopoeia and were w idely administered by doctors. Due at least in part to this accepted p osition in medical culture, usage of these drugs was tolerated by the upper and middle classes. Toward the end of the century, however, Tenn essee doctors began to attack the drugs, particularly opium. Soon ther eafter, the legislature forbade the purchase of cocaine without a pres cription. Although the legislature repeatedly attempted to treat opium in the same manner, these efforts were unsuccessful for many years. S ome historians have contended that this ''cocaine-first'' regulative p attern resulted from legislators' fear that blacks, who were thought t o be the primary users of the drug, would go on violent rampages while under its influence. This article, however, argues that regulation oc curred as it did because both black and white members of the lower cla sses, by using cocaine openly during the 1890s, rejected the dominant white culture's norm of private drug use that had grown up alongside t he drugs' acceptance in medical culture. When this rejection occurred, cocaine quickly fell under the power of the dominant culture. However , opium, by its nature a more introspective drug, better fit the domin ant norm; and thus it resisted regulation much longer.