nov 15, 1875 - 1875 – San Francisco’s Opium Den Ordinance

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“On November 15, 1875, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed an ordinance making it a misdemeanor to keep or frequent opium dens, the opening shot in a war that is still raging on” (Gierenger). Following the Civil War, the use of morphine and especially opium proliferated throughout the US, with San Francisco becoming the major port of entry for smoking the drug. The act of smoking opium and the drug itself were not the target of the San Francisco Opium Den Ordinance. During the mid-1870s, anti-Chinese sentiment swept the state of California. The Chinese were the original introducers of the drug during the gold rush and at the time were the primary users in San Francisco. Racism fueled the passing of the ordinance, because Chinese immigrants were heavily involved in managing opium dens, the point of the legislation was to decrease the interaction and sale of opium between Chinese immigrants and white Americans. This law, being the first of its kind in attempting to decrease the use of a drug, inspired many more by state and federal governments to control drug use.

http://www.drugsense.org/dpfca/opiumlaw.html

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