In 1914, the United States Congress passed the Harrison Act, forcing doctors to register and maintain records of all narcotic prescriptions. (In addition to relieving pain, opium is a narcotic, a word derived from the Greek narkoun, meaning “to make numb.” All narcotics, by definition, suppress the central nervous system, causing drowsiness, stupor, and occasionally coma.) In 1919, the U.S. Supreme Court extended the act, making it clear that doctors were prohibited from prescribing narcotics to maintain an addiction. Almost a hundred years would pass before doctors were held accountable for
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