Opium Act: Opium Use

opium act: It was a tough economic time, and resentment was growing toward Chinese and other immigrants working for low wages, according to NOW Magazine. After race riots in 1907, Mackenzie King, the deputy minister of labour at the time, visited opium dens in Vancouver and became concerned with apparent increased opium use, particularly by white people and women. The 1908 Opium Act was the first Canadian law that prohibited drugs, and it was at least a partially racist response to Chinese immigrants associated with opium use at the time. That visit is said to have been a catalyst for the Opium Act. Some people point to The Black Candle, a book by so-called and famed feminist Emily Murphy, who linked drug use to specific risks to white women. In 1923, the government added marijuana to the schedule of prohibited drugs in the Opium and Narcotic Control Act. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.