Drug prohibition

Drug prohibition is a policy that bans or criminalizes specified activities involving psychoactive drugs, including production, sale, possession, or use.

Controlled-substance law: Law that regulates or prohibits specified drugs and related activities. Drug prohibition is implemented through statutes that classify substances and set legal restrictions.
Opium Wars: Two nineteenth-century conflicts between Britain and China centered on trade, diplomacy, and opium. The wars shaped later debates about opium commerce and state control.
Black market: Trade in goods or services conducted outside legal markets. Bans can displace drug supply into unregulated, clandestine markets.
Drug decriminalization: Removal of criminal penalties for some drug-related conduct, often personal possession, while other restrictions remain. Decriminalization relaxes punishment without necessarily legalizing production or sale.
Drug scheduling: A system that classifies drugs into legal categories, often according to medical use and perceived risk. Schedules determine which substances are prohibited and how severe their restrictions become.
International Opium Convention: The 1912 treaty that established international controls on opium and related drugs. It began the treaty framework that later coordinated national drug restrictions.
Mass incarceration: The large-scale use of imprisonment by a society, especially in the United States since the late twentieth century. Drug offenses have contributed to prison populations and disparities in punishment.
Drug legalization: Removal of legal prohibitions on specified drug activities, sometimes with regulated markets. Legalization replaces bans with permission, unlike prohibition's criminal restrictions.
Drug possession: The act of knowingly having a controlled drug under one's control. Possession bans make personal custody punishable even without sale or production.
Harrison Narcotics Tax Act: A 1914 United States law regulating opiates and cocaine through taxation and registration. Its restrictive administration helped establish federal control of narcotics in the United States.

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