Editing Opium (section)

=== Prohibition outside China ===
There were no legal restrictions on the importation or use of opium in the United States until the San Francisco Opium Den Ordinance, which banned dens for public smoking of opium in 1875, a measure fueled by [[anti-Chinese sentiment]] and the perception that whites were starting to frequent the dens. This was followed by an 1891 California law requiring that narcotics carry warning labels and that their sales be recorded in a registry; amendments to the California Pharmacy and Poison Act in 1907 made it a crime to sell opiates without a prescription, and bans on possession of opium or [[opium pipe]]s in 1909 were enacted.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.november.org/stayinfo/breaking07/CA-WOD.html|title=State's War on Drugs – a 100-Year Bust|author=Dale Gieringer|date=March 4, 2007}}</ref>

At the US federal level, the legal actions taken reflected constitutional restrictions under the [[enumerated powers]] doctrine prior to reinterpretation of the [[commerce clause]], which did not allow the federal government to enact arbitrary prohibitions, but did permit arbitrary taxation.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mcwilliams.com/books/aint/303a.htm|title=Ain't Nobody's Business If You Do|author=Peter McWilliams|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070525110756/http://www.mcwilliams.com/books/aint/303a.htm|archive-date=May 25, 2007|df=mdy-all}}</ref> Beginning in 1883, opium importation was taxed at {{US$|6}} to {{US$|300}} per pound, until the Opium Exclusion Act of 1909 prohibited the importation of opium altogether. In a similar manner, the [[Harrison Narcotics Tax Act]] of 1914, passed in fulfillment of the [[International Opium Convention]] of 1912, nominally placed a tax on the distribution of opiates, but served as a ''de facto'' prohibition of the drugs. Today, opium is regulated by the [[Drug Enforcement Administration]] under the [[Controlled Substances Act]].

Following passage of a Colonial Australian law in 1895, Queensland's [[Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act 1897]] addressed opium addiction among [[Indigenous Australians|Aboriginal people]], though it soon became a general vehicle for depriving them of basic rights by administrative regulation. By 1905 all Australian states and territories had passed similar laws making prohibitions to Opium sale. Smoking and possession was prohibited in 1908.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/liac/hot_topic/hottopic/2000/4/2.html|author=Legal Information Access Centre|title=Drug laws in Australia}}</ref>

Hardening of Canadian attitudes toward Chinese opium users and fear of a spread of the drug into the white population led to the effective criminalization of opium for nonmedical use in Canada between 1908 and the mid-1920s.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.projectcork.org/bibliographies/data/Bibliography_Historical.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030125153032/http://www.projectcork.org/bibliographies/data/Bibliography_Historical.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=2003-01-25|author=Carstairs C.|title=Jailed for Possession: Illegal Drug Use, Regulation, and Power in Canada, 1920–61|year=2006|access-date=May 21, 2007}}</ref>

In 1909, the [[International Opium Commission]] was founded, and by 1914, 34 nations had agreed that the production and importation of opium should be diminished. In 1924, 62 nations participated in a meeting of the commission. Subsequently, this role passed to the [[League of Nations]], and all signatory nations agreed to prohibit the import, sale, distribution, export, and use of all narcotic drugs, except for medical and scientific purposes. This role was later taken up by the [[International Narcotics Control Board]] of the United Nations under [[s:Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs Article 23: NATIONAL OPIUM AGENCIES|Article 23]] of the [[Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs]], and subsequently under the [[Convention on Psychotropic Substances]]. Opium-producing nations are required to designate a [[government agency]] to take physical possession of licit opium crops as soon as possible after harvest and conduct all wholesaling and exporting through that agency.<ref name="Schiff" />