Editing Harrison Narcotics Tax Act (section)

====Cocaine====
Cocaine was first isolated in 1855. Within a few decades public opinion had associated cocaine use with crime sprees committed by black men.{{sfn|Courtwright|1992|p=5}} There were many hysterical news reports in the early 20th-century about cocaine-fueled rampages using hyperbole like "cocaine-crazed negro" and others exaggerating the addictiveness of cocaine saying it quickly reduced users to "another entry in Satan's ledger".{{sfn|Gray|2023|p=205}}{{sfn|Kennedy|1985|p=93-7}} In 1900, the ''[[Journal of the American Medical Association]]'' published an editorial stating, "[[Negro]]es in the South are reported as being addicted to a new form of vice – that of 'cocaine sniffing' or the 'coke habit.{{'"}} A well-known article published in ''[[The New York Times]]'' on February 8, 1914 claimed cocaine use caused blacks to rape white women.{{sfn|Fisher|2024|p=267}} This article and similar articles of the era, however, do not provide examples of such crimes. The people who made such allegations used racism to manipulate public opinion, but their allegations were unfounded.{{sfn|Gray|2023|p=207}} The article titled ''Negro Cocaine 'Fiends' Are a New Southern Menace'' is remembered for its portrayal of "the cocaine-crazed negro" who was invulnerable to bullets. The use of the term "fiends" by Dr. Edward Huntington Williams, the author of the article, is understood to connote the demonization of the non-white drug user.{{sfn|Fisher|2024|p=267}}<ref>{{Cite web |last=Williams, MD |first=Edward Huntington |date=Feb 8, 1914 |title=Negro Cocaine 'Fiends' Are a New Southern Menace; Murder and Insanity Increasing Among Lower Class Blacks Because They Have Taken to 'Sniffing' Since Deprived of Whisky by Prohibition |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1914/02/08/archives/negro-cocaine-fiends-are-a-new-southern-menace-murder-and-insanity.html |access-date=Dec 14, 2023 |website=The New York Times}}</ref> 

According to historian [[David F. Musto]] public opinion about cocaine turned negative as newspapers and even ''[[Good Housekeeping]]'' scapegoated the drug to explain rising crime in the South:{{sfn|Musto|1999|p=305}}

<blockquote>Thus the problem of cocaine proceeded from an association with Negroes in about 1900, when a massive repression and disenfranchisement were under way in the South, to a convenient explanation for crime waves, and eventually Northerners used it as an argument against Southern fear of infringement of states's rights.</blockquote>

Despite the extreme racialization of the issue that took place in the buildup to the act's passage, contemporary research in Northern cities found relatively few cocaine users compared with alcoholics and opium addicts overall and no significant concentration among blacks. Blacks did use "patent medicines" containing opiates and cocaine for pulmonary conditions. It's possible that higher rates of disease among blacks in the early 20th century may explain why blacks consumed patent medicines more than whites.<ref>Helmer, John, and Thomas Vietorisz. ''[https://libcom.org/library/2-blacks-cocaine-opium-1905-1920 Drug Use, the Labor Market and Class Conflict]''. Washington: Drug Abuse Council, 1974. Libcom.org. Web. 17 Aug. 2014.</ref>{{sfn|Gray|2023|p=204}}