Boticas y toxicómanos: Origen y reglamentación del control de drogas en Chile, 1900-1940

Abstract

Since the beginning of the 20th century in Chile, a public debate was initiated regarding the extra medical consumption of substances such as opium and its derivatives, cocaine and cannabis. It was the pharmacists who first expressed the need establish controls on the distribution and consumption of such products. They considered that this controlshould be under their exclusive responsibility. Arguing against physicians and central authorities-in particular the General Health Direction-the owners of pharmacies actively cooperated in the formulation of the first normative destined to regulate the sales and consumption of substances that might be used for recreational purposes. In this manner, together with the rise of the drug abuser, the regulation that would pursue them was born.