Totally Wasted

Drug War Quiz: Just Say Know

Dust off your short-term memory and test your drug war knowledge with some tidbits from This Is Your Country on Drugs: The Secret History of Getting High in America.

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1. A 1918 New York Times article suggested Germany was trying to make Americans "cokeys" and "hop fiends" with...

  • Drugs mixed into sausage
  • Drugs in toothpaste and teething syrup
  • Narco-polkas

2. How much "ditchweed"—wild hemp with no psychoactive properties—did the DEA destroy in 2005?

  • 219 plants
  • 219,000 plants
  • 219 million plants

3. As the "methedemic" raged in 2004, how many meth "superlabs" did federal authorities seize?

  • 55,500
  • 550
  • 55

4. During the late 19th century, most opium addicts were first turned on to the drug by...

  • Doctors
  • Hobos
  • Chinese opium dens

5. Which of the following did not support efforts to criminalize marijuana in the 1930s?

  • Pharmaceutical industry
  • American Medical Association
  • Liquor industry

6. Nearly what portion of Mexico's arable land is used to grow drugs?

  • 1/5
  • 1/4
  • 1/3

7. Which president first declared cocaine "the most dangerous drug problem that the US ever faced"?

  • William Taft
  • Ronald Reagan
  • George W. Bush

8. Who was the Senate's most strident drug warrior in the 1960s?

  • Barry Goldwater
  • Robert F. Kennedy
  • Strom Thurmond

9. In which decade did Americans' illegal drug use decline most rapidly?

  • 1980s
  • 1990s
  • 2000s

10. In 2004, the White House buried a study that found that a $1.4 billion anti-pot ad campaign had...

  • Increased first-time pot use among 14- to 16-year-olds
  • Increased first-time pot use among whites
  • Both A and B

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Ryan Grim

Ryan Grim is the senior congressional correspondent for the Huffington Post, and is the author of This Is Your Country on Drugs. For more of his stories, click here.

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