This stamp publicized the fact that drug addiction is a national menace and of concern to every American. During the 19th century there were very few controls on the importation, possession, purchase, sale, or use of psychoactive drugs. In the 1920s the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that maintaining addicts on narcotic drugs, even by prescription, was in violation of the Harrison Act. Most who were not addicted at the time became so as a result of taking drugs for medical purposes. Until the 1960s, recreational use of drugs was confined to a tiny minority of the population. That decade saw a dramatic turnaround in drug use. Media attention to drugs and drug use declined between the late 1960s and late 1970s, although actual drug use did not. Recent studies show a considerable drop in the use of most drug types through the 1980s.