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Braunschweig

Braunschweig or Brunswick (from Low German Brunswiek, local dialect: Bronswiek ) is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, north of the Harz Mountains at the farthest navigable point of the river Oker, which connects it to the North Sea via the rivers Aller and Weser. In 2016, it had a population of 250,704.

A powerful and influential centre of commerce in medieval Germany, Brunswick was a member of the Hanseatic League from the 13th until the 17th century. It was the capital city of three successive states: the Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (1269–1432, 1754–1807, and 1813–1814), the Duchy of Brunswick (1814–1918), and the Free State of Brunswick (1918–1946).

Today, Brunswick is the second-largest city in Lower Saxony and a major centre of scientific research and development.

Foundation and early history
The date and circumstances of the town's foundation are unknown. Tradition maintains that Brunswick was created through the merger of two settlements, one founded by Brun(o), a Saxon count who died in 880, on one side of the River Oker – the legend gives the year 861 for the foundation – and the other the settlement of a legendary Count Dankward, after whom Dankwarderode Castle ("Dankward's clearing"), which was reconstructed in the 19th century, is named.

The town's original name of Brunswik is a combination of the name Bruno and Low German wik (related to the Latin vicus), a place where merchants rested and stored their goods. The town's name, therefore, indicates an ideal resting place, as it lay by a ford across the Oker River. Another explanation of the city's name is that it comes from Brand, or burning, indicating a place which developed after the landscape was cleared through burning. The city was first mentioned in documents from the St. Magni Church from 1031, which give the city's name as Brunesguik.

Middle Ages and early modern period
Up to the 12th century, Brunswick was ruled by the Saxon noble family of the Brunonids, then, through marriage, it fell to the House of Welf. In 1142, Henry the Lion of the House of Welf became duke of Saxony and made Braunschweig the capital of his state (which, from 1156 on, also included the Duchy of Bavaria). He turned Dankwarderode Castle, the residence of the counts of Brunswick, into his own Pfalz and developed the city further to represent his authority. Under Henry's rule, the Cathedral of St. Blasius was built and he also had the statue of a lion, his heraldic animal, erected in front of the castle. The lion subsequently became the city's landmark.

Henry the Lion became so powerful that he dared to refuse military aid to the Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, which led to his banishment in 1182. Henry went into exile in England. He had previously established ties to the English crown in 1168, through his marriage to King Henry II of England's daughter Matilda, sister of Richard the Lionheart. However, his son Otto, who could regain influence and was eventually crowned Holy Roman Emperor, continued to foster the city's development.

During the Middle Ages, Brunswick was an important center of trade, one of the economic and political centers in Northern Europe and a member of the Hanseatic League from the 13th century to the middle of the 17th century. By the year 1600, Brunswick was the seventh largest city in Germany. Although formally one of the residences of the rulers of the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg, a constituent state of the Holy Roman Empire, Brunswick was de facto ruled independently by a powerful class of patricians and the guilds throughout much of the Late Middle Ages and the Early modern period. Because of the growing power of Brunswick's burghers, the Princes of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, who ruled over one of the subdivisions of Brunswick-Lüneburg, finally moved their Residenz out of the city and to the nearby town of Wolfenbüttel in 1432. The Princes of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel did not regain control over the city until the late 17th century, when Rudolph Augustus, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, took the city by siege.

In the 18th century Brunswick was not only a political, but also a cultural centre. Influenced by the philosophy of the Enlightenment, dukes like Anthony Ulrich and Charles I became patrons of the arts and sciences. In 1745, Charles I founded the Collegium Carolinum, predecessor of the Brunswick University of Technology, and in 1753 he moved the ducal residence back to Brunswick. With this he attracted poets and thinkers such as Lessing, Leisewitz, and Jakob Mauvillon to his court and the city. Emilia Galotti by Lessing and Goethe's Faust were performed for the first time in Brunswick.

19th century
In 1806, the city was captured by the French during the Napoleonic Wars and became part of the short-lived Napoleonic Kingdom of Westphalia in 1807. The exiled Duke Frederick William raised a volunteer corps, the Black Brunswickers, who fought the French in several battles.

After the Congress of Vienna in 1815, Brunswick was made capital of the re-established independent Duchy of Brunswick, later a constituent state of the German Empire from 1871. In the aftermath of the July Revolution in 1830, in Brunswick duke Charles II was forced to abdicate. His absolutist governing style had previously alienated the nobility and bourgeoisie, while the lower classes were disaffected by the bad economic situation. During the night of 7–8 September 1830, the ducal palace in Brunswick was stormed by an angry mob, set on fire, and destroyed completely. Charles was succeeded by his brother William VIII. During William's reign, liberal reforms were made and Brunswick's parliament was strengthened.

During the 19th century, industrialisation caused a rapid growth of population in the city, eventually causing Brunswick to be for the first time significantly enlarged beyond its medieval fortifications and the River Oker. On 1 December 1838, the first section of the Brunswick–Bad Harzburg railway line connecting Brunswick and Wolfenbüttel opened as the first railway line in Northern Germany, operated by the Duchy of Brunswick State Railway.

Early to mid-20th century

On 8 November 1918, at the end of World War I, a socialist workers' council forced Duke Ernest Augustus to abdicate. On 10 November, the council proclaimed the Socialist Republic of Brunswick under one-party government by the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD); however, the subsequent Landtag election on 22 December 1918 was won by the Majority Social Democratic Party of Germany (MSPD), and the USPD and MSPD formed a coalition government. An uprising in Braunschweig in 1919, led by the communist Spartacus League, was defeated when Freikorps troops under Georg Ludwig Rudolf Maercker took over the city on order of the German Minister of Defence, Gustav Noske. An MSPD-led government was subsequently established; in December 1921, a new constitution was approved for the Free State of Brunswick, now a parliamentary republic within the Weimar Republic, again with Braunschweig as its capital.

After the Landtag election of 1930, Brunswick became the second state in Germany where the Nazis participated in government, when the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) formed a coalition government with several conservative and right-wing parties. With the support of Dietrich Klagges, Brunswick's minister of the interior, the NSDAP organized a large SA rally in Braunschweig. On 17–18 October 1931, 100,000 SA stormtroopers marched through the city; street fights between Nazis, socialists, and communists left several dead or injured. On 25 February 1932, the state of Brunswick granted Adolf Hitler German citizenship to allow him to run in the 1932 German presidential election. In Braunschweig, Nazis carried out several attacks on political enemies, with the acquiescence of the state government.

After the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, several state institutions were placed in Braunschweig, including the Luftfahrtforschungsanstalt in Völkenrode, the Hitler Youth Academy for Youth Leadership, and the SS-Junkerschule Braunschweig. With the Reichswerke Hermann Göring in Salzgitter and the Stadt des KdF-Wagens, as well as several factories in the city itself (including Büssing and the Volkswagenwerk Braunschweig), the Braunschweig region became one of the centres of the German arms industry.

During the Second World War, Braunschweig was a sub-area headquarters of Wehrkreis XI (one of Germany's military districts), and was the garrison city of the 31st Infantry Division that took part in the invasions of Poland, Belgium, and France, largely being destroyed during its retreat following the invasion of Russia. In this period, thousands of Eastern workers were brought to the city as forced labor, and in the 1943–1945 period at least 360 children taken away from such workers died in the Entbindungsheim für Ostarbeiterinnen ("Maternity Ward for Eastern Workers").

In 1944, a subcamp of the concentration camp Neuengamme was established in Braunschweig. Hundreds of prisoners, mostly Jews, lived in brutal conditions and hundreds died from hunger, disease, and overwork. Piera Sonnino (1922-1999), an Italian author, writes of her imprisonment in that camp in her book, This Has Happened, published in English in 2006 by MacMillan Palgrave.

The Allied air raid on October 15, 1944, destroyed most of the city's churches, and the Altstadt (old town), the largest homogeneous ensemble of half-timbered houses in Germany. 100 out of 800 half-timbered houses survived as well as the most important places and streets, preserved in 5 areas of the old town.

The city's cathedral, which had been converted to a Nationale Weihestätte (national shrine) by the Nazi government, still stood.

Postwar period to the 21st century
About 10 % of the inner city survived Allied bombing and remain to represent its distinctive architecture. The cathedral was restored to its function as a Protestant church. Outside the old town city centre large historic quarters remain like Östliches Ringgebiet with its Gründerzeit architecture.

Politically, after the war, the Free State of Brunswick was dissolved by the Allied occupying authorities, Braunschweig ceased to be a capital, and most of its lands were incorporated in the newly formed state of Lower Saxony.

During the Cold War, Braunschweig, then part of West Germany, suffered economically due to its proximity to the Iron Curtain. The city lost its historically strong economic ties to what was then East Germany; for decades, economic growth remained, on average, below the rest of the country while unemployment was above-average for West Germany.

On 28 February 1974, as part of a district reform in Lower Saxony, the rural district of Braunschweig, which had surrounded the city, was disestablished. The major part of the former district was incorporated into the city of Braunschweig, increasing its population by roughly 52,000 people.

In the 1990s, efforts increased to reconstruct historic buildings that had been destroyed in the air raid. The façade of the Braunschweiger Schloss was rebuilt, and buildings such as the Alte Waage (originally built in 1534) now stand again.

Population
Braunschweig has a population of 250,000 and is the 2nd largest city in Lower Saxony. Braunschweig is considered as one of the oldest cities in Germany, founded in 1031 by Henry the Lion. Braunschweig first reached its peak of over 100,000 in 1890. In the 1960s and 1970s industrialization boomed in Braunschweig due to automobile and other companies coming to Braunschweig and surrounding cities like Wolfsburg and Salzgitter. Braunschweig's population reached its highest peak of population in 1975 with population of about 273,000. Braunschweig's population starts to decline in the 1980s. In the 1990s after the German reunification it began to grow again as many East Germans moved there due to its close close proximity to former East Germany. Today Braunschweig is the center of research and development and called by some people "City of Science".

Religion
In 2015, 91,785 people (or 36.3% of the population) were Protestant and 34,604 (13.7%) people were Roman Catholic; 126,379 people (50.0%) either adhered to other denominations or followed no religion.

Immigration
A total of 64,737 of Braunschweig's residents, including German citizens, had an immigrant background in 2015 (25.6% of the total population). Among those, 25,676 were non-German citizens (10.2%); the following table lists up the largest minority groups:

Main sights

 * The Burgplatz (Castle Square), comprising a group of buildings of great historical and cultural significance: the Cathedral (St Blasius, built at the end of the 12th century); the Burg Dankwarderode (Dankwarderode Castle) (a 19th-century reconstruction of the old castle of Henry the Lion); the Neo-Gothic Town Hall (built in 1893–1900); as well as some picturesque half-timbered houses, such as the Gildehaus (Guild House), today the seat of the Craftsman's Association. In the centre of the square stands a copy of the Burglöwe (Brunswick Lion), a Romanesque statue of a lion, cast in bronze in 1166. The original statue can be seen in the museum of Dankwarderode Castle. The lion remains the symbol of Braunschweig today.
 * The Altstadtmarkt ("Old Town market"), surrounded by the Old Town town hall (built between the 13th and the 15th centuries in Gothic style), and the Martinikirche (Church of Saint Martin, from 1195), with important historical houses including the Gewandhaus (the former house of the drapers' guild, built sometime before 1268) and the Stechinelli-Haus (built in 1690) and a fountain from 1408.
 * The Kohlmarkt ("coal market" ), a market with many historical houses and a fountain from 1869.
 * The Hagenmarkt ("Hagen market"), with the 13th-century Katharinenkirche (Church of Saint Catherine) and the Heinrichsbrunnen ("Henry the Lion's Fountain") from 1874.
 * The Magniviertel (St Magnus' Quarter), a remainder of ancient Braunschweig, lined with cobblestoned streets, little shops and cafés, centred on the 13th-century Magnikirche (St Magnus' Church). Here is also the Rizzi-Haus, a highly distinctive, cartoonish office building designed by architect James Rizzi for the Expo 2000.
 * The Romanesque and Gothic Andreaskirche (Church of Saint Andrew), built mainly between the 13th and 16th centuries with stained glass by Charles Crodel. Surrounding the church are the Liberei, the oldest surviving freestanding library building in Germany, and the reconstructed Alte Waage.
 * The Gothic Aegidienkirche (Church of Saint Giles), built in the 13th century, with an adjoining monastery, which is today a museum.
 * The Staatstheater (State Theatre), newly built in the 19th century, goes back to the first standing public theatre in Germany, founded in 1690 by Duke Anthony Ulrich.
 * The ducal palace of Braunschweig was bombed in World War II and demolished in 1960. The exterior was rebuilt to contain a palace museum, library and shopping centre, which opened in 2007.
 * The baroque palace Schloss Richmond ("Richmond Palace"), built between 1768 and 1769 with a surrounding English garden for Princess Augusta of Great Britain, wife of Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, to remind her of her home in England.
 * The BraWoPark is a shopping center near Braunschweig Hauptbahnhof(main train station), it consists of three skyscrapers, the tallest building being nearly 100 meters or 328 feet tall. The oldest building of BraWoPark was founded in 1980 which is Business center 1.
 * Riddagshausen Abbey (German: Kloster Riddagshausen), a former Cistercian monastery, with the surrounding nature reserve and arboretum. The nature reserve Riddagshäuser Teiche is designated as an Important Bird Area and Special Protection Area.
 * Gründerzeit quarters like östliches Ringgebiet, westliches Ringgebiet and Nordstadt-Schunteraue.

Parks and gardens
Parks and gardens in the city include the botanical garden Botanischer Garten der Technischen Universität Braunschweig, founded in 1840 by Johann Heinrich Blasius, the Bürgerpark, the Löwenwall with an obelisk from 1825, the Prinz-Albrecht-Park, and the Inselwallpark. Other parks and recreation areas are Stadtpark, Westpark, Theaterpark, Museumpark, Heidbergsee, Südsee, Ölpersee, the zoological garden Arche Noah Zoo Braunschweig and the nearby Essehof Zoo.

Subdivisions
Braunschweig is made up of 19 boroughs (German: Stadtbezirke), which themselves may consist of several quarters (German: Stadtteile) each. The 19 boroughs, with their official numbers, are:

 * 112: Wabe-Schunter-Beberbach1
 * 113: Hondelage
 * 114: Volkmarode
 * 120: Östliches Ringgebiet
 * 131: Innenstadt
 * 132: Viewegsgarten-Bebelhof
 * 211: Stöckheim-Leiferde
 * 212: Heidberg-Melverode
 * 213: Südstadt-Rautheim-Mascherode
 * 221: Weststadt
 * 222: Timmerlah-Geitelde-Stiddien
 * 223: Broitzem
 * 224: Rüningen
 * 310: Westliches Ringgebiet
 * 321: Lehndorf-Watenbüttel
 * 322: Veltenhof-Rühme
 * 323: Wenden-Thune-Harxbüttel
 * 331: Nordstadt
 * 332: Schunteraue

1Formed in 2011 out of the former boroughs of Wabe-Schunter and Bienrode-Waggum-Bevenrode.

Mayor
The current mayor of Braunschweig is Thorsten Kornblum of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) since 2021. The most recent mayoral election was held on 12 September 2021, with a runoff held on 26 September, and the results were as follows:

! rowspan=2 colspan=2| Candidate ! rowspan=2| Party ! colspan=2| First round ! colspan=2| Second round ! Votes ! % ! Votes ! % ! colspan=3| Valid votes ! 108,811 ! 99.3 ! 121,262 ! 98.1 ! colspan=3| Invalid votes ! 721 ! 0.7 ! 2,407 ! 1.9 ! colspan=3| Total ! 109,532 ! 100.0 ! 123,669 ! 100.0 ! colspan=3| Electorate/voter turnout ! 197,728 ! 55.4 ! 197,414 ! 62.6
 * bgcolor=|
 * align=left| Thorsten Kornblum
 * align=left| Social Democratic Party
 * 41,734
 * 38.4
 * 79,861
 * 65.9
 * bgcolor=|
 * align=left| Kaspar Haller
 * align=left| Christian Democratic Union
 * 29,011
 * 26.7
 * 41,401
 * 34.1
 * bgcolor=|
 * align=left| Tatjana Schneider
 * align=left| Alliance 90/The Greens
 * 24,802
 * 22.8
 * bgcolor=|
 * align=left| Mirco Hanker
 * align=left| Alternative for Germany
 * 4,704
 * 4.3
 * align=left| Birgit Huvendieck
 * align=left| Citizens' Initiative Braunschweig
 * 3,215
 * 3.0
 * bgcolor=|
 * align=left| Anke Schneider
 * align=left| The Left
 * 2,827
 * 2.6
 * bgcolor=|
 * align=left| Thomas Hofmann
 * align=left| Die PARTEI
 * 1,904
 * 1.7
 * bgcolor=|
 * align=left| Erdmann Gust
 * align=left| Independent
 * 614
 * 0.6
 * align=left| Die PARTEI
 * 1,904
 * 1.7
 * bgcolor=|
 * align=left| Erdmann Gust
 * align=left| Independent
 * 614
 * 0.6
 * 0.6
 * colspan=7| Source: City of Braunschweig
 * }
 * }

City council
The Braunschweig city council governs the city alongside the Mayor. The most recent city council election was held on 12 September 2021, and the results were as follows:

! colspan=2| Party ! Votes ! % ! +/- ! Seats ! +/- ! colspan=2| Total ! 317,193 ! 100.0 ! ! ! ! colspan=2| Valid votes ! 107,850 ! 98.5 ! ! ! ! colspan=2| Invalid votes ! 1,606 ! 1.5 ! ! ! ! colspan=2| Total ! 109,456 ! 100.0 ! ! 54 ! ±0 ! colspan=2| Electorate/voter turnout ! 197,728 ! 55.4 ! 0.2 ! !
 * bgcolor=|
 * align=left| Social Democratic Party (SPD)
 * 93,546
 * 29.5
 * 3.5
 * 16
 * 2
 * bgcolor=|
 * align=left| Alliance 90/The Greens (Grüne)
 * 71,880
 * 22.7
 * 10.6
 * 12
 * 5
 * bgcolor=|
 * align=left| Christian Democratic Union (CDU)
 * 69,670
 * 22.0
 * 4.2
 * 12
 * 2
 * bgcolor=|
 * align=left| Free Democratic Party (FDP)
 * 18,704
 * 5.9
 * 1.4
 * 3
 * 1
 * align=left| Citizens' Initiative Braunschweig
 * 16,778
 * 5.3
 * 0.7
 * 3
 * ±0
 * bgcolor=|
 * align=left| Alternative for Germany (AfD)
 * 13,512
 * 4.3
 * 4.6
 * 2
 * 3
 * bgcolor=|
 * align=left| The Left (Die Linke)
 * 12,428
 * 3.9
 * 0.7
 * 2
 * 1
 * bgcolor=|
 * align=left| Volt Germany (Volt)
 * 6,467
 * 2.0
 * New
 * 1
 * New
 * bgcolor=|
 * align=left| Die PARTEI (PARTEI)
 * 6,302
 * 2.0
 * 0.5
 * 1
 * ±0
 * bgcolor=|
 * align=left| Pirate Party (Piraten)
 * 3,261
 * 1.0
 * 1.4
 * 1
 * ±0
 * bgcolor=|
 * align=left| Grassroots Democratic Party (dieBasis)
 * 2,999
 * 0.9
 * New
 * 1
 * New
 * colspan=7 bgcolor=lightgrey|
 * bgoclor=|
 * align=left| Alliance for Innovation and Justice (BIG)
 * 1,646
 * 0.5
 * New
 * 0
 * New
 * 2,999
 * 0.9
 * New
 * 1
 * New
 * colspan=7 bgcolor=lightgrey|
 * bgoclor=|
 * align=left| Alliance for Innovation and Justice (BIG)
 * 1,646
 * 0.5
 * New
 * 0
 * New
 * 0
 * New
 * colspan=7| Source: City of Braunschweig
 * }
 * }

Transport
Braunschweig's city centre is mostly a car-free pedestrian zone.

Road
Two main autobahns serve Braunschweig, the A2 (Berlin—Hanover—Dortmund) and the A39 (Salzgitter—Wolfsburg). City roads are generally wide, built after World War II to support the anticipated use of the car. There are several car parks in the city.

Bicycle
Many residents travel around town by bicycle using an extensive system of bicycle-only lanes. The main train station includes a bicycle parking area.

Train
The city is on the main rail line between Frankfurt and Berlin. Deutsche Bahn (German Railways) serves the city with local, inter-city and high-speed InterCityExpress (ICE) trains, with frequent stops at Braunschweig Central Station (German: Braunschweig Hauptbahnhof).

Tram and bus
The Braunschweig tramway network is an inexpensive and extensive 35 km long electric tramway system. First opened in 1897, it has been modernized, including a 3.2 km extension in 2007. The network has an gauge, unique for a European railway or tramway network. However, it is being supplemented in stages by a third rail, to allow future joint working with the main railway network.

The municipally owned Braunschweiger Verkehrs-AG currently operates five tram lines and several bus lines. The tram lines are:

Air
Braunschweig Airport (BWE / EDVE) is located north of the city at 52.31667°N, 10.55°W, elev. 295 ft.

Name
Many other geographical locations around the world are named Brunswick, after the historical English name of Braunschweig. Between 1714 and 1837, the House of Hanover ruled Great Britain in personal union with the Electorate of Hanover. The House of Hanover was formally known as the House of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Hanover line. As a result, many places in the British colonies were named after Brunswick, such as the province of New Brunswick in Canada.

Ironically, the city of Braunschweig was not ruled by the Hanoverians while its name was being given to other Brunswicks around the world. Starting in 1269, the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg underwent a series of divisions and mergers, with parts of the territory being transferred between various branches of the family. The city of Braunschweig went to the senior branch of the house, the Wolfenbüttel line, while Lüneburg eventually ended up with the Hanover line. Although the territory had been split, all branches of the family continued to style themselves as the House of Brunswick-Lüneburg. In 1884, the senior branch of the House of Welf became extinct. The Hanover line, being the last surviving line of the family, subsequently held the throne of the Duchy of Brunswick from November 1913 until November 1918.

Government offices
The offices of the Luftfahrt-Bundesamt (LBA, "Federal Aviation Office") and the German Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation (BFU) are located in Braunschweig.

Research and science
Braunschweig has been an important industrial area. Today it is known for its University and research institutes, mainly the Johann Heinrich von Thuenen Institute, the Julius Kühn-Institut, and the Institute for Animal Food of the Friedrich Loeffler Institute, until the end of 2007 all part of the Federal Agricultural Research Centre, the German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures, and the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB). The PTB Braunschweig maintains the atomic clock responsible for the DCF77 time signal and the official German time. In 2006 the region of Braunschweig was the most R&D-intensive area in the whole European Economic Area investing 7.1% of its GDP for research & technology. In 2014, the figure had risen to 7.7%, making Braunschweig retain its ranking as the most R&D-intensive region in Germany. Braunschweig was named Germany's City of Science 2007 (Stadt der Wissenschaft 2007).

Braunschweig University of Technology (German: Technische Universität Braunschweig) was founded in 1745 and is the oldest member of TU9, an incorporated society of the nine most prestigious, oldest, and largest universities focusing on engineering and technology in Germany. With approximately 18,000 students, Braunschweig University of Technology is the third largest university in Lower Saxony.

Education
Also located in Braunschweig is the Martino-Katharineum Braunschweig, a secondary school founded in 1415. It had such famous pupils as Carl Friedrich Gauss, Hoffmann von Fallersleben, Richard Dedekind and Louis Spohr. Since 2004, Braunschweig also has an International School. Other notable secondary schools include the Gymnasium Neue Oberschule, Gymnasium Gaussschule, Gymnasium Kleine Burg, Hoffmann-von-Fallersleben-Schule Braunschweig, Integrierte Gesamtschule Franzsches Feld, and Wilhelm-Gymnasium (Braunschweig).

Lower Saxony's only university of art, founded in 1963, can be found in Braunschweig, the Hochschule für Bildende Künste Braunschweig (Braunschweig College of Fine Arts). The HBK is an institution of higher artistic and scientific education and offers the opportunity to study for interdisciplinary artistic and scientific qualifications. Additionally, one of the campuses of the Eastphalia University of Applied Sciences (German: Ostfalia Hochschule für angewandte Wissenschaften, formerly Fachhochschule Braunschweig/Wolfenbüttel) was located in the city until 2010.

Economy
In 2015, the German weekly business news magazine Wirtschaftswoche ranked Braunschweig as one of the most dynamic economic spaces in all of Germany.

Braunschweig was one of the centres of the industrialization in Northern Germany. During the 19th and early 20th century the canning and railroad industries and the sugar production were of great importance for Braunschweig's economy, but eventually other branches such as the automotive industry became more important, while especially the canning industry began to vanish from the city after the end of World War II. The defunct truck and bus manufacturer Büssing was headquartered in Braunschweig. Current factories in the city include Volkswagen, Siemens, Bombardier Transportation, and Bosch.

The fashion label NewYorker, the publishing house Westermann Verlag, Nordzucker, Volkswagen Financial Services and Volkswagen Bank have their headquarters in the city as well as the Volkswagen utility vehicle holding. Also two major optical companies were headquartered in Braunschweig: Voigtländer and Rollei.

During the 1980s and early 1990s the computer companies Atari and Commodore International both had branches for development and production within the city.

Braunschweig is the home of two piano companies, both known worldwide for the high quality of their instruments: Schimmel and Grotrian-Steinweg. Both companies were founded in the 19th century. Additionally Sandberg Guitars is based in Braunschweig.

Culture

Braunschweig is famous for Till Eulenspiegel, a medieval jester who played many practical jokes on its citizens. It also had many breweries, and still a very peculiar kind of beer is made called Mumme, first quoted in 1390, a malt-extract that was shipped all over the world. Two major breweries still produce in Braunschweig, the Hofbrauhaus Wolters, founded in 1627, and the former Feldschlößchen (Braunschweig) brewery, founded in 1871, now operated by Oettinger Beer.

Braunschweiger Mettwurst, a soft, spreadable smoked pork sausage, is named after the city. Other traditional local dishes include white asparagus, Braunschweiger Lebkuchen, Braunkohl (a variant of kale served with Bregenwurst), and Uhlen un Apen (Low German for "Owls and Guenons", a pastry).

Media
Braunschweig's major local newspaper is the Braunschweiger Zeitung, first published in 1946. Papers formerly published in Braunschweig include the Braunschweigische Anzeigen/Braunschweigische Staatszeitung (1745–1934), the Braunschweigische Landeszeitung (1880–1936) and the Braunschweiger Stadtanzeiger/Braunschweiger Allgemeiner Anzeiger (1886–1941), and the social-democratic Braunschweiger Volksfreund (1871–1933).

Near Braunschweig at Cremlingen-Abbenrode, there is a large medium wave transmitter, which transmits the program of Deutschlandfunk on 756 kHz, the Cremlingen transmitter.

Festivals
Schoduvel, a medieval Northern German form of carnival was celebrated in Braunschweig as early as the 13th century. Since 1979 an annual Rosenmontag parade is held in Braunschweig, the largest in Northern Germany, which is named Schoduvel in honour of the medieval custom.

An annual Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas market) is held in late November and December on the Burgplatz in the centre of Braunschweig. In 2008 the market had 900,000 visitors.

Museums and galleries

The city's most important museum is the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, a well known art museum and the oldest public museum in Germany, founded in 1754. It houses a collection of masters of Western art, including Dürer, Giorgione, Cranach, Holbein, Van Dyck, Vermeer, Rubens, and Rembrandt.

The State Museum of Brunswick (Braunschweigisches Landesmuseum), founded in 1891, houses a permanent collection documenting the history of the Brunswick area ranging from its early history to the present.

The Municipal Museum of Brunswick (Städtisches Museum Braunschweig), founded in 1861, is a museum for art and cultural history, documenting the history of the city of Braunschweig.

The State Natural History Museum is a zoology museum founded in 1754.

Other museums in the city include the Museum of Photography (Museum für Photographie), the Jewish Museum (Jüdisches Museum), the Museum for Agricultural Technology Gut Steinhof, and the Gerstäcker-Museum. Frequent exhibitions of contemporary art are also held by the Art Society of Braunschweig (German: Kunstverein Braunschweig), housed in the Villa Salve Hospes, a classicist villa built between 1805 and 1808.

Music and dance
The Braunschweig Classix Festival was an annual classical music festival. It is the largest promoter of classical music in the region and one of the most prominent music festivals in Lower Saxony.

From 2001 to 2009, and again since 2013, the annual finals of the international breakdance competition Battle of the Year have been held at the Volkswagen Halle in Braunschweig.

Braunschweiger TSC is among the leading competitive formation dance teams in the world and has won multiple World and European championship titles.

Sports

Braunschweig's major local football team is Eintracht Braunschweig. Founded in 1895, Eintracht Braunschweig can look back on a long and chequered history. Eintracht Braunschweig won the German football championship in 1967, and currently plays in the 2. Bundesliga, the second tier of German football, and attracts a large number of supporters. Braunschweig was also arguably the city in which the first ever game of football in Germany took place. The game had been brought to Germany by the local school teacher Konrad Koch, also the first to write down a German version of the rules of football, who organized the first match between pupils from his school Martino-Katharineum in 1874. The 2011 German drama film Lessons of a Dream is based on Koch.

Eintracht Braunschweig also fields a successful women's field hockey team that claimed nine national championship titles between 1965 and 1978. In the past, the club also had first or second-tier teams in the sports of ice hockey, field handball, and water polo.

The New Yorker Lions (formerly Braunschweig Lions) are the city's American football team, winning a record number of 12 German Bowl titles, as well as five Eurobowls (a shared record).

The city's professional basketball team, the Basketball Löwen Braunschweig, plays in the Basketball Bundesliga, the highest level in Germany. The Löwen's predecessor SG Braunschweig had previously played in the Bundesliga as well. Eintracht Braunschweig's women's basketball team plays in the 2. Damen-Basketball-Bundesliga, the second tier of women's basketball in Germany.

In handball, MTV Braunschweig, the city's oldest sports club (founded in 1847), plays in the semi-professional 3. Liga.

Other sports clubs from Braunschweig that play or have played at the Bundesliga or 2nd Bundesliga level include Braunschweig Spot Up 89ers (baseball), Braunschweiger THC (field hockey), FC Braunschweig (handball), Rugby-Welfen Braunschweig (rugby union), and USC Braunschweig (volleyball).

Annual sporting events held in Braunschweig include the international equestrian tournament Löwen Classics, Rund um den Elm, Germany's oldest road bicycle race, and the professional tennis tournament Sparkassen Open.

Twin towns – sister cities
Braunschweig is twinned with:

 * 🇮🇩 Bandung, Indonesia (1960)
 * 🇫🇷 Nîmes, France (1962)
 * 🏴 Bath, England (1971)
 * 🇹🇳 Sousse, Tunisia (1980)
 * 🇮🇱 Kiryat Tiv'on, Israel (1985)
 * 🇩🇪 Magdeburg, Germany (1987)
 * 🇷🇺 Kazan, Russia (1988)
 * 🇺🇸 Omaha, United States (1992)
 * 🇨🇳 Zhuhai, China (2011)

Notable people
Alphabetical list of some notable people associated with Braunschweig:

• Hermann Blumenau (1819–1899), founder of Blumenau, Brazil.

• Johann Joachim Christoph Bode (1731–1793), translator

• Bosses (born 1980), rock musician

• Wilhelm Bracke (1842–1880), one of the founders of the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Germany, predecessor of the Social Democratic Party of Germany.

• Heinrich Büssing (1843–1929), industrialist

• Axel Freiherr von dem Bussche-Streithorst (1919–1993), military officer and member of the German resistance.

• Joachim Heinrich Campe (1746–1818), educator and writer

• Caroline of Brunswick (1768–1821), Queen consort of King George IV of the United Kingdom

• Richard Dedekind (1831–1916), mathematician

• Paul Drude (1863–1906), physicist, developed the Drude model.

• Christine Enghaus (1815–1910), actress

• Johann Joachim Eschenburg (1743–1820), produced the first complete German translation of William Shakespeare's plays.

• Frederick William, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (1771–1815), leader of the Black Brunswickers.

• Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777–1855), mathematician

• Günter Gaus (1929–2004), journalist

• Friedrich Gerstäcker (1816–1872), writer

• Gerhard Glogowski (born 1943), politician

• Otto Grotewohl (1894–1964), Prime minister of the German Democratic Republic

• Otto Harder (1892–1956), German international footballer

• Adolph Henke (1775–1843), physician

• Henry the Lion (1129–1195), Duke of Saxony and Bavaria

• August Hermann (1835–1906), "Braunschweig's Father of Physical Education"

• August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben (1798–1874), poet and author of Das Lied der Deutschen.

• Ricarda Huch (1864–1947), historian and writer

• Ernst August Friedrich Klingemann (1777–1831), writer

• Gustav Knuth (1901–1987), actor

• Alfred Kubel (1909–1999), politician

• August Lafontaine (1758–1831), author of sentimental didactic novels once immensely popular, born and brought up in the city

• Johann Anton Leisewitz (1752–1806), poet

• Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729–1781), writer and philosopher

• Lothar Osterburg (born 1961), printmaker and visual artist

• Otto IV of Brunswick (1175–1218), Holy Roman Emperor

• Bernhard Plockhorst (1825–1907), painter

• Agnes Pockels (1862–1935), chemist

• Wilhelm Raabe (1831–1910), writer

• Friedrich Adolf Riedesel (1738–1800), commander during the American Revolutionary War

• Galka Scheyer (1889–1945), painter

• Dennis Schröder (born 1993), NBA basketball player, currently with the Toronto Raptors.

• Norbert Schultze (1911–2002), composer

• Hans Sommer (1837–1922), composer and mathematician

• Louis Spohr (1784–1859), composer

• Henry E. (1797–1871) and C. F. Theodore Steinway (1825–1889), piano makers

• Ludger Tom Ring the Younger (1522–1584), painter

• Susan Wayland (1980–), pornographic model

• Friedrich Georg Weitsch (1758–1828), painter

• Christian Ludewig Theodor Winkelmann (1812–1875), piano maker

• Franz Winter (1861–1930), archaeologist

• Caroline Wiseneder (1807-1868) composer

• Michael Zickerick (born 1948), diplomat

• Rainer Hunold (born 1949), actor

title: Braunschweig


text:
Talk:Superconductivity

The superconducting state breaks no symmetry
Clearly, the simple s-wave superconducting state does not break the local gauge invariance (it is still there in the superconducting phase) or any other symmetry for that matter. Therefore, I find the sentence "The existence of these "universal" properties is rooted in the nature of the broken symmetry of the superconductor and the emergence of off-diagonal long range order." a bit confusing. Maybe it can be modified to "The existence of these "universal" properties is rooted in the formation of a condensate of charged particles and the emergence of off-diagonal long range order"?

Don't Cooperpairs need energy to form / Maybe someone can explain
About this part of the article, right at the start: "... below which the resistance drops abruptly to zero. An electric current through a loop of superconducting wire can persist indefinitely with no power source ..." Well first of all the first source is down.

Then: As I understand it, the band gap is a dynamic balance. So there are continuously forming Cooper pairs and breaking apart. Every time a Cooper pair forms, it takes around 1 meV. That ain't much, naturally, but it is something... so wouldn't that energy change its form, ie not be part of the equation anymore, so that an electric current through a loop of superconducting wire should not persist indefinitely, but continuously "lose" an insanely small amount of energy, until nothing is left, unless you could create a superconductor at 0 Kelvin, which is proven to be impossible to reach?

I feel like zero resistance would somewhat break the laws of nature as it is the case with zero Kelvin. Maybe someone can clarify. --Leo Navis (talk) 19:39, 29 March 2022 (UTC)

 * Alrighty, I talked to a friend of mine who is an electrical engineer and he explained it like "Yeah, there is energy lost, but you wouldn't call that resistance, since you don't have resistance in a classical, Ohm way".  If that is correct then the statement here is not correct: "An electric current through a loop of superconducting wire can persist indefinitely with no power source" and should be fixed. The sources are also not what I would like to see for such a spectactular statement; I feel like the sentence should just be deleted. --Leo Navis (talk) 07:39, 1 May 2022 (UTC)

There is no magic here: The supercurrent flows in the ground state of the superconductor, so it cannot decay (it is the lowest energy state). Brienanni (talk) 10:12, 1 May 2022 (UTC)
 * At some point, it is quantum mechanics and you can't explain it any other way. As well as I know it, to lose supercurrent, it has to lose it all at once. The Cooper pairs are one quantum state, and scatter all or nothing. And the all is hard. Gah4 (talk) 13:59, 1 May 2022 (UTC)
 * It would be great if you could give me a reliable source for that. The sources that are given there are clearly not enough, they don't explain or show anything.
 * My reasoning, again: as I have read it, the Cooperpairs in a superconductor over 0 Kelvin are in a dynamic state and therefore form and break apart all the time. Every time that happens it takes ~ 1 meV. 1 meV is an incredibly small amount of energy, but it's still energy. And if there's energy needed to keep the process going, it would not go on forever, as stated in the article.
 * Please give a good, reliable source that is able to sufficiently explain why and how there is no energy lost at all, who has proven that in what work. Because you must admit, that is a very bold statement, and if it is not, as I suspect, sufficiently proven, that sentence has no place in an encyclopedia, as it is mere speculation. --Leo Navis (talk) 18:33, 4 May 2022 (UTC)
 * No energy is lost because it the superconductor is in the ground state, there is no lower energy state available. The Cooper pairs are not in a dynamic state, they do not break apart, that would cost energy which is not available in the ground state. In any case, that the supercurrent does not decay is an experimental fact. For example, this publication https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.10.93 measures a decay time larger than one hundred thousand years. Brienanni (talk) 19:35, 4 May 2022 (UTC)
 * "More than 100.000 years" sure is impressive. It is not infinite. So... that's not what I asked for. If you have a "decay-time larger than one hundred thousand years", then that's not "indefinitely". See my point?
 * The article claims, as a fact, that an electric current in a superconductor > 0K can persist indefinitely with no power source. So please, do deliver a viable source that that is actually proven. Not over 100.000 years. Not over a Million years. Indefinitely. If you cannot, we should take that sentence out or edit it. That sentence is IMHO an absurd statement because it's impossible to prove and should therefore not be part of this article or this encyclopedia. --Leo Navis (talk) 20:00, 4 May 2022 (UTC)
 * There are many exponentials in quantum mechanics, and I believe this is one. That is, the lifetime is exponential in the number of Cooper pairs in the superconducting ring. There is an old saying that ties the experimental number to the term of a graduate student, since they are the ones that do experiments. It doesn't take a very large exponent to get a very long time. If you run into a brick wall, there is a (very small) chance that you come through the wall through quantum tunneling. It is exponential it the thickness of the wall. For something that happens much faster, consider alpha decay of U238. An alpha particle moves inside the nucleus at about 0.1c, and bounces off the nuclear boundary, until it tunnels out. How many times does it hit before it gets through? (The nucleus is a few fm across, and c is 3e23 fm/s.) The time might not be infinite, only 10**(10**23) microseconds. Gah4 (talk) 07:06, 7 May 2022 (UTC)
 * Very well. So can we now please take this out? "Unlike an ordinary metallic conductor, whose resistance decreases gradually as its temperature is lowered even down to near absolute zero, a superconductor has a characteristic critical temperature below which the resistance drops abruptly to zero. An electric current through a loop of superconducting wire can persist indefinitely with no power source." --Leo Navis (talk) 20:23, 11 May 2022 (UTC)
 * There are many exponentials in quantum mechanics, and I believe this is one. That is, the lifetime is exponential in the number of Cooper pairs in the superconducting ring. There is an old saying that ties the experimental number to the term of a graduate student, since they are the ones that do experiments. It doesn't take a very large exponent to get a very long time. If you run into a brick wall, there is a (very small) chance that you come through the wall through quantum tunneling. It is exponential it the thickness of the wall. For something that happens much faster, consider alpha decay of U238. An alpha particle moves inside the nucleus at about 0.1c, and bounces off the nuclear boundary, until it tunnels out. How many times does it hit before it gets through? (The nucleus is a few fm across, and c is 3e23 fm/s.) The time might not be infinite, only 10**(10**23) microseconds. Gah4 (talk) 07:06, 7 May 2022 (UTC)
 * Very well. So can we now please take this out? "Unlike an ordinary metallic conductor, whose resistance decreases gradually as its temperature is lowered even down to near absolute zero, a superconductor has a characteristic critical temperature below which the resistance drops abruptly to zero. An electric current through a loop of superconducting wire can persist indefinitely with no power source." --Leo Navis (talk) 20:23, 11 May 2022 (UTC)

Added the citations below to the sentence in question: --ChetvornoTALK 21:06, 11 May 2022 (UTC)
 * "An experiment always has a limited accuracy... Nevertheless experimentalists have pushed as far as they could to determine how small the resistivity of a superconductor is. For a superconductor... no dissipation occurs so the induced currents can persist indefinitely. This kind of experiment has been repeated, persistent currents have been observed for several years, and the decay time for the persistent current has been evaluated as ~105 years.  This comes quite close to an experimental proof of [zero resistance]." Roland Combescot (2022) Superconductivity: An Introduction, Cambridge Univ Press, p.1-2
 * "Since R=0, there is no energy dissipation (I2R loss), a current set up in a closed loop of a superconductor persists forever without decay." Ajay Kumar Saxena (2009) High Temperature Superconductors, Springer Science, p. 215
 * "It is, however, still possible to arrive at the reasonable conclusion ρ → 0 [no resistivity] by inference from real measurements. In such experiments the magnetic field associated with an induced current has been found to remain counstant over a time span as long as one year. [...] The resulting analysis of such an experiment leads to the conclusion that the lower bound on the decay constant τ for the current in the superconductor is of the order of 100000 years, implying that the total time for the current to die out completely would be millions of years."  Kristian Fossheim, Asle Sudboe (2005) Superconductivity: Physics and Applications, John Wiley and Sons, p. 7
 * "This comes close to proof" and "implying that the total time for the current to die out ... would be millions of years" is not "indefinitely" and not "proof". Why are we not just writing it like it is writte in the sources? Why must we talk here like something that, from these sources clearly shown, is not proven at all, but instead not just talk of it how it's reasonable to talk about it? Why claim factuality when that isn't justified by the material? --Leo Navis (talk) 09:02, 14 May 2022 (UTC)
 * It can only last as long as someone keeps supplying coolant. I am not sure about differences in High-Tc materials compared to traditional metals. What do actual sources say? Gah4 (talk) 18:12, 14 May 2022 (UTC)
 * This one says indefinite, which is different from infinite. Gah4 (talk) 18:17, 14 May 2022 (UTC)
 * I take "Indefinitely" to mean "longer than any practical measurement timescale". That's not the same as "infinite". Infinity is too strong a word. Would it be preferable to describe the resistance as "unmeasurably small"? There are other forms of persistent motion. For example, the magnetic moment of a microscopic piece of iron metal will persist indefinitely. A rock will remain perched on a hill indefinitely. None of these timescales are truly infinite, but neither are they gradually decaying. I wish for the reader to understand that a superconductor is not simply a better conductor than copper. (this is my first edit in the comments for a long time, so I'm trusting the editor; notify me or edit my comment if I've left a mess) Spiel496 (talk) 00:00, 5 June 2022 (UTC)
 * Recently (not in WP) someone asked about gamma rays from hot objects. You can take the black body spectrum out to 2.3MeV, and, from my calculation, it is 1e-100. So not zero. As well as I know, superconductivity is not gradually decaying, like a single radioactive atom doesn't gradually decay. It either decays or it doesn't. Quantum mechanics is good at coming up with small but non-zero probabilities. What is the probability of you suddenly quantum tunneling to pluto? Not zero, but extremely small. As well as I know, superconductivity is exponential in the number of Cooper pairs. Gah4 (talk) 02:08, 5 June 2022 (UTC)
 * I take "Indefinitely" to mean "longer than any practical measurement timescale". That's not the same as "infinite". Infinity is too strong a word. Would it be preferable to describe the resistance as "unmeasurably small"? There are other forms of persistent motion. For example, the magnetic moment of a microscopic piece of iron metal will persist indefinitely. A rock will remain perched on a hill indefinitely. None of these timescales are truly infinite, but neither are they gradually decaying. I wish for the reader to understand that a superconductor is not simply a better conductor than copper. (this is my first edit in the comments for a long time, so I'm trusting the editor; notify me or edit my comment if I've left a mess) Spiel496 (talk) 00:00, 5 June 2022 (UTC)
 * Recently (not in WP) someone asked about gamma rays from hot objects. You can take the black body spectrum out to 2.3MeV, and, from my calculation, it is 1e-100. So not zero. As well as I know, superconductivity is not gradually decaying, like a single radioactive atom doesn't gradually decay. It either decays or it doesn't. Quantum mechanics is good at coming up with small but non-zero probabilities. What is the probability of you suddenly quantum tunneling to pluto? Not zero, but extremely small. As well as I know, superconductivity is exponential in the number of Cooper pairs. Gah4 (talk) 02:08, 5 June 2022 (UTC)
 * Recently (not in WP) someone asked about gamma rays from hot objects. You can take the black body spectrum out to 2.3MeV, and, from my calculation, it is 1e-100. So not zero. As well as I know, superconductivity is not gradually decaying, like a single radioactive atom doesn't gradually decay. It either decays or it doesn't. Quantum mechanics is good at coming up with small but non-zero probabilities. What is the probability of you suddenly quantum tunneling to pluto? Not zero, but extremely small. As well as I know, superconductivity is exponential in the number of Cooper pairs. Gah4 (talk) 02:08, 5 June 2022 (UTC)
 * Recently (not in WP) someone asked about gamma rays from hot objects. You can take the black body spectrum out to 2.3MeV, and, from my calculation, it is 1e-100. So not zero. As well as I know, superconductivity is not gradually decaying, like a single radioactive atom doesn't gradually decay. It either decays or it doesn't. Quantum mechanics is good at coming up with small but non-zero probabilities. What is the probability of you suddenly quantum tunneling to pluto? Not zero, but extremely small. As well as I know, superconductivity is exponential in the number of Cooper pairs. Gah4 (talk) 02:08, 5 June 2022 (UTC)

new super conductive material in room temperature
paper just went public. not sure how this is treated in wiki. but massive change Jazi Zilber (talk) 10:45, 26 July 2023 (UTC)
 * Discussion is at Talk:Room-temperature_superconductor Jähmefyysikko (talk) 11:19, 26 July 2023 (UTC)
 * As usual, we need a reliable secondary source. Might be too soon for that. Gah4 (talk) 23:10, 26 July 2023 (UTC)
 * I concur - too soon - the paper is not peer reviewed and as far as I’m aware, nobody has recreated their results. - a mention on the talk page would not be out of place, but that’s it, IMO. that I hear, at least some reproduction efforts are having difficulty instantly sourcing the needed phosphorus - Don’t be worried if news takes a week or two.   73.203.41.207 (talk) 01:33, 1 August 2023 (UTC)
 * Seems it is good we waited: room temperature superconductivity plagiarism. Gah4 (talk) 04:27, 3 August 2023 (UTC)
 * That plagiarism accusation is about a different event. Ranga Dias in Rochester back in March, not the Korean research group in the news today. Tarl N. ( discuss ) 08:18, 3 August 2023 (UTC)
 * Seems it is good we waited: room temperature superconductivity plagiarism. Gah4 (talk) 04:27, 3 August 2023 (UTC)
 * That plagiarism accusation is about a different event. Ranga Dias in Rochester back in March, not the Korean research group in the news today. Tarl N. ( discuss ) 08:18, 3 August 2023 (UTC)
 * That plagiarism accusation is about a different event. Ranga Dias in Rochester back in March, not the Korean research group in the news today. Tarl N. ( discuss ) 08:18, 3 August 2023 (UTC)

Should the introduction describe it as a 'phase'?
The lead sentence says
 * "Superconductivity is a set of physical properties observed in certain materials where electrical resistance vanishes and magnetic flux fields are expelled from the material."

The Elementary properties section describes it as a "thermodynamic phase" so I'm wondering if this should be in the introduction. Or, since Type I and II are different phases, maybe it should be described as "Superconductivity is a class of thermodynamic phases observed in certain materials in which electrical resistance vanishes and magnetic flux fields are expelled from the material" Also should the word "cryogenic" be in the lead paragraph, to indicate for general readers that existing superconductors require cryogenic temperatures? I'm not a physicist so I'm just bringing this up for discussion. --ChetvornoTALK 23:13, 7 August 2023 (UTC)

 * Keep it simple. Class, thermodynamics, phases... is too much even for university-educated people. And let's wait about this 'cryogenic' part a little, though it should be mentioned that most tech. important uses require low temps. And oh! - what are "magnetic flux fields" now?? 68.199.122.141 (talk) 01:06, 8 August 2023 (UTC)

 * Yeah, "flux fields" LOL. Gotta be one or the other. --ChetvornoTALK 01:37, 8 August 2023 (UTC)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Talk:Superconductivity


text:
Drug prohibition

The prohibition of drugs through sumptuary legislation or religious law is a common means of attempting to prevent the recreational use of certain intoxicating substances.

An area has a prohibition of drugs when its government uses the force of law to punish the use or possession of drugs which have been classified as illegal. A government may simultaneously have systems in place to regulate both illegal and legal drugs. Regulation controls the manufacture, distribution, marketing, sale, and use of certain drugs, for instance through a prescription system. For example, in some states, the possession or sale of amphetamines is a crime unless a patient has a physician's prescription for the drug; having a prescription authorizes a pharmacy to sell and a patient to use a drug that would otherwise be prohibited. Although prohibition mostly concerns psychoactive drugs (which affect mental processes such as perception, cognition, and mood), prohibition can also apply to non-psychoactive drugs, such as anabolic steroids. Many governments do not criminalize the possession of a limited quantity of certain drugs for personal use, while still prohibiting their sale or manufacture, or possession in large quantities. Some laws (or judicial practice) set a specific volume of a particular drug, above which is considered ipso jure to be evidence of trafficking or sale of the drug.

Some Islamic countries prohibit the use of alcohol (see list of countries with alcohol prohibition). Many governments levy a tax on alcohol and tobacco products, and restrict alcohol and tobacco from being sold or gifted to a minor. Other common restrictions include bans on outdoor drinking and indoor smoking. In the early 20th century, many countries had alcohol prohibition. These include the United States (1920–1933), Finland (1919–1932), Norway (1916–1927), Canada (1901–1948), Iceland (1915–1922) and the Russian Empire/USSR (1914–1925). In fact, the first international treaty to control a psychoactive substance adopted in 1890 actually concerned alcoholic beverages (Brussels Conference). The first treaty on opium only arrived two decades later, in 1912.

Definitions
Drugs, in the context of prohibition, are any of a number of psychoactive substances whose use a government or religious body seeks to control. What constitutes a drug varies by century and belief system. What is a psychoactive substance is relatively well known to modern science. Examples include a range from caffeine found in coffee, tea, and chocolate, nicotine in tobacco products; botanical extracts morphine and heroin, and synthetic compounds MDMA and fentanyl. Almost without exception, these substances also have a medical use, in which case they are called pharmaceutical drugs or just pharmaceuticals. The use of medicine to save or extend life or to alleviate suffering is uncontroversial in most cultures. Prohibition applies to certain conditions of possession or use. Recreational use refers to the use of substances primarily for their psychoactive effect outside of a clinical situation or doctor's care.

In the twenty-first century, caffeine has pharmaceutical uses. Caffeine is used to treat bronchopulmonary dysplasia. In most cultures, caffeine in the form of coffee or tea is unregulated. Over 2.25 billion cups of coffee are consumed in the world every day. Some religions, including the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, prohibit coffee. They believe that it is both physically and spiritually unhealthy to consume coffee.

A government's interest to control a drug may be based on its negative effects on its users, or it may simply have a revenue interest. The British parliament prohibited the possession of untaxed tea with the imposition of the Tea Act of 1773. In this case, as in many others, it is not a substance that is prohibited, but the conditions under which it is possessed or consumed. Those conditions include matters of intent, which makes the enforcement of laws difficult. In Colorado possession of "blenders, bowls, containers, spoons, and mixing devices" is illegal if there was intent to use them with drugs.

Many drugs, beyond their pharmaceutical and recreational uses, have industrial uses. Nitrous oxide, or laughing gas is a dental anesthetic, also used to prepare whipped cream, fuel rocket engines, and enhance the performance of race cars. Ethanol, or drinking alcohol, is also used as a fuel, industrial solvent and disinfectant.

History
The cultivation, use, and trade of psychoactive and other drugs has occurred since ancient times. Concurrently, authorities have often restricted drug possession and trade for a variety of political and religious reasons. In the 20th century, the United States led a major renewed surge in drug prohibition called the "War on Drugs".

Early drug laws
The prohibition on alcohol under Islamic Sharia law, which is usually attributed to passages in the Qur'an, dates back to the early seventh century. Although Islamic law is often interpreted as prohibiting all intoxicants (not only alcohol), the ancient practice of hashish smoking has continued throughout the history of Islam, against varying degrees of resistance. A major campaign against hashish-eating Sufis were conducted in Egypt in the 11th and 12th centuries resulting among other things in the burning of fields of cannabis.

Though the prohibition of illegal drugs was established under Sharia law, particularly against the use of hashish as a recreational drug, classical jurists of medieval Islamic jurisprudence accepted the use of hashish for medicinal and therapeutic purposes, and agreed that its "medical use, even if it leads to mental derangement, should remain exempt [from punishment]". In the 14th century, the Islamic scholar Az-Zarkashi spoke of "the permissibility of its use for medical purposes if it is established that it is beneficial".

In the Ottoman Empire, Murad IV attempted to prohibit coffee drinking to Muslims as haraam, arguing that it was an intoxicant, but this ruling was overturned soon after he died in 1640. The introduction of coffee in Europe from Muslim Turkey prompted calls for it to be banned as the devil's work, although Pope Clement VIII sanctioned its use in 1600, declaring that it was "so delicious that it would be a pity to let the infidels have exclusive use of it". Bach's Coffee Cantata, from the 1730s, presents a vigorous debate between a girl and her father over her desire to consume coffee. The early association between coffeehouses and seditious political activities in England led to the banning of such establishments in the mid-17th century.

A number of Asian rulers had similarly enacted early prohibitions, many of which were later forcefully overturned by Western colonial powers during the 18th and 19th centuries. In 1360, for example, King Ramathibodi I, of Ayutthaya Kingdom (now Thailand), prohibited opium consumption and trade. The prohibition lasted nearly 500 years until 1851 when King Rama IV allowed Chinese migrants to consume opium. The Konbaung Dynasty prohibited all intoxicants and stimulants during the reign of King Bodawpaya (1781–1819). After Burma became a British colony, the restrictions on opium were abolished and the colonial government established monopolies selling Indian-produced opium.

In late Qing China, opium imported by foreign traders, such as those employed by Jardine Matheson and the East India Company, was consumed by all social classes in Southern China. Between 1821 and 1837, imports of the drug increased fivefold. The wealth drain and widespread social problems that resulted from this consumption prompted the Chinese government to attempt to end the trade. This effort was initially successful, with Lin Zexu ordering the destruction of opium at Humen in June 1839. However, the opium traders lobbied the British government to declare war on China, resulting in the First Opium War. The Qing government was defeated and the war ended with the Treaty of Nanking, which legalized opium trading in Chinese law

First modern drug regulations
The first modern law in Europe for the regulating of drugs was the Pharmacy Act 1868 in the United Kingdom. There had been previous moves to establish the medical and pharmaceutical professions as separate, self-regulating bodies, but the General Medical Council, established in 1863, unsuccessfully attempted to assert control over drug distribution. The Act set controls on the distribution of poisons and drugs. Poisons could only be sold if the purchaser was known to the seller or to an intermediary known to both, and drugs, including opium and all preparations of opium or of poppies, had to be sold in containers with the seller's name and address. Despite the reservation of opium to professional control, general sales did continue to a limited extent, with mixtures with less than 1 percent opium being unregulated.

After the legislation passed, the death rate caused by opium immediately fell from 6.4 per million population in 1868 to 4.5 in 1869. Deaths among children under five dropped from 20.5 per million population between 1863 and 1867 to 12.7 per million in 1871 and further declined to between 6 and 7 per million in the 1880s.

In the United States, the first drug law was passed in San Francisco in 1875, banning the smoking of opium in opium dens. The reason cited was "many women and young girls, as well as young men of a respectable family, were being induced to visit the Chinese opium-smoking dens, where they were ruined morally and otherwise." This was followed by other laws throughout the country, and federal laws that barred Chinese people from trafficking in opium. Though the laws affected the use and distribution of opium by Chinese immigrants, no action was taken against the producers of such products as laudanum, a tincture of opium and alcohol, commonly taken as a panacea by white Americans. The distinction between its use by white Americans and Chinese immigrants was thus a form of racial discrimination as it was based on the form in which it was ingested: Chinese immigrants tended to smoke it, while it was often included in various kinds of generally liquid medicines often (but not exclusively) used by Americans of European descent. The laws targeted opium smoking, but not other methods of ingestion.

Britain passed the All-India Opium Act of 1878, which limited recreational opium sales to registered Indian opium-eaters and Chinese opium-smokers and prohibiting its sale to emigrant workers from British Burma.

Following the passage of a regional law in 1895, Australia's 1897 Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act addressed opium addiction among Aborigines, though it soon became a general vehicle for depriving them of basic rights by administrative regulation. Opium sale was prohibited to the general population in 1905, and smoking and possession were prohibited in 1908.

Despite these laws, the late 19th century saw an increase in opiate consumption. This was due to the prescribing and dispensing of legal opiates by physicians and pharmacists to relieve menstruation pain. It is estimated that between 150,000 and 200,000 opiate addicts lived in the United States at the time, and a majority of these addicts were women.

Changing attitudes and the drug prohibition campaign

Foreign traders, including those employed by Jardine Matheson and the East India Company, smuggled opium into China in order to balance high trade deficits. Chinese attempts to outlaw the trade led to the First Opium War and the subsequent legalization of the trade at the Treaty of Nanking. Attitudes towards the opium trade were initially ambivalent, but in 1874 the Society for the Suppression of the Opium Trade was formed in England by Quakers led by the Rev. Frederick Storrs-Turner. By the 1890s, increasingly strident campaigns were waged by Protestant missionaries in China for its abolition. The first such society was established at the 1890 Shanghai Missionary Conference, where British and American representatives, including John Glasgow Kerr, Arthur E. Moule, Arthur Gostick Shorrock and Griffith John, agreed to establish the Permanent Committee for the Promotion of Anti-Opium Societies.

Due to increasing pressure in the British parliament, the Liberal government under William Ewart Gladstone approved the appointment of a Royal Commission on Opium to India in 1893. The commission was tasked with ascertaining the impact of Indian opium exports to the Far East, and to advise whether the trade should be banned and opium consumption itself banned in India. After an extended inquiry, the Royal Commission rejected the claims made by the anti-opium campaigners regarding the supposed societal harm caused by the trade and the issue was finalized for another 15 years.

The missionary organizations were outraged over the Royal Commission on Opium's conclusions and set up the Anti-Opium League in China; the league gathered data from every Western-trained medical doctor in China and published Opinions of Over 100 Physicians on the Use of Opium in China. This was the first anti-drug campaign to be based on scientific principles, and it had a tremendous impact on the state of educated opinion in the West. In England, the home director of the China Inland Mission, Benjamin Broomhall, was an active opponent of the opium trade, writing two books to promote the banning of opium smoking: The Truth about Opium Smoking and The Chinese Opium Smoker. In 1888, Broomhall formed and became secretary of the Christian Union for the Severance of the British Empire with the Opium Traffic and editor of its periodical, National Righteousness. He lobbied the British parliament to ban the opium trade. Broomhall and James Laidlaw Maxwell appealed to the London Missionary Conference of 1888 and the Edinburgh Missionary Conference of 1910 to condemn the continuation of the trade. As Broomhall lay dying, an article from The Times was read to him with the welcome news that an international agreement had been signed ensuring the end of the opium trade within two years.

In 1906, a motion to 'declare the opium trade "morally indefensible" and remove Government support for it', initially unsuccessfully proposed by Arthur Pease in 1891, was put before the House of Commons. This time the motion passed. The Qing government banned opium soon afterward.

These changing attitudes led to the founding of the International Opium Commission in 1909. An International Opium Convention was signed by 13 nations at The Hague on January 23, 1912, during the First International Opium Conference. This was the first international drug control treaty and it was registered in the League of Nations Treaty Series on January 23, 1922. The Convention provided that "The contracting Powers shall use their best endeavors to control or to cause to be controlled, all person manufacturing, importing, selling, distributing, and exporting morphine, cocaine, and their respective salts, as well as the buildings in which these persons carry such an industry or trade."

The treaty became international law in 1919 when it was incorporated into the Treaty of Versailles. The role of the commission was passed to the League of Nations, and all signatory nations agreed to prohibit the import, sale, distribution, export, and use of all narcotic drugs, except for medical and scientific purposes.

Prohibition
In the UK the Defence of the Realm Act 1914, passed at the onset of the First World War, gave the government wide-ranging powers to requisition the property and to criminalize specific activities. A moral panic was whipped up by the press in 1916 over the alleged sale of drugs to the troops of the British Indian Army. With the temporary powers of DORA, the Army Council quickly banned the sale of all psychoactive drugs to troops, unless required for medical reasons. However, shifts in the public attitude towards drugs—they were beginning to be associated with prostitution, vice and immorality—led the government to pass further unprecedented laws, banning and criminalising the possession and dispensation of all narcotics, including opium and cocaine. After the war, this legislation was maintained and strengthened with the passing of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1920 (10 & 11 Geo. 5. c. 46). Home Office control was extended to include raw opium, morphine, cocaine, ecogonine and heroin.

Hardening of Canadian attitudes toward Chinese-Canadian opium users and fear of a spread of the drug into the white population led to the effective criminalization of opium for nonmedical use in Canada between 1908 and the mid-1920s.

The Mao Zedong government nearly eradicated both consumption and production of opium during the 1950s using social control and isolation. Ten million addicts were forced into compulsory treatment, dealers were executed, and opium-producing regions were planted with new crops. Remaining opium production shifted south of the Chinese border into the Golden Triangle region. The remnant opium trade primarily served Southeast Asia, but spread to American soldiers during the Vietnam War, with 20 percent of soldiers regarding themselves as addicted during the peak of the epidemic in 1971. In 2003, China was estimated to have four million regular drug users and one million registered drug addicts.

In the US, the Harrison Act was passed in 1914, and required sellers of opiates and cocaine to get a license. While originally intended to regulate the trade, it soon became a prohibitive law, eventually becoming legal precedent that any prescription for a narcotic given by a physician or pharmacist – even in the course of medical treatment for addiction – constituted conspiracy to violate the Harrison Act. In 1919, the Supreme Court ruled in Doremus that the Harrison Act was constitutional and in Webb that physicians could not prescribe narcotics solely for maintenance. In Jin Fuey Moy v. United States, the court upheld that it was a violation of the Harrison Act even if a physician provided prescription of a narcotic for an addict, and thus subject to criminal prosecution. This is also true of the later Marijuana Tax Act in 1937. Soon, however, licensing bodies did not issue licenses, effectively banning the drugs.

The American judicial system did not initially accept drug prohibition. Prosecutors argued that possessing drugs was a tax violation, as no legal licenses to sell drugs were in existence; hence, a person possessing drugs must have purchased them from an unlicensed source. After some wrangling, this was accepted as federal jurisdiction under the interstate commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution.

Alcohol prohibition
The prohibition of alcohol commenced in Finland in 1919 and in the United States in 1920. Because alcohol was the most popular recreational drug in these countries, reactions to its prohibition were far more negative than to the prohibition of other drugs, which were commonly associated with ethnic minorities, prostitution, and vice. Public pressure led to the repeal of alcohol prohibition in Finland in 1932, and in the United States in 1933. Residents of many provinces of Canada also experienced alcohol prohibition for similar periods in the first half of the 20th century.

In Sweden, a referendum in 1922 decided against an alcohol prohibition law (with 51% of the votes against and 49% for prohibition), but starting in 1914 (nationwide from 1917) and until 1955 Sweden employed an alcohol rationing system with personal liquor ration books ("motbok").

War on Drugs

In response to rising drug use among young people and the counterculture movement, government efforts to enforce prohibition were strengthened in many countries from the 1960s onward. Support at an international level for the prohibition of psychoactive drug use became a consistent feature of United States policy during both Republican and Democratic administrations, to such an extent that US support for foreign governments has often been contingent on their adherence to US drug policy. Major milestones in this campaign include the introduction of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs in 1961, the Convention on Psychotropic Substances in 1971 and the United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances in 1988. A few developing countries where consumption of the prohibited substances has enjoyed longstanding cultural support, long resisted such outside pressure to pass legislation adhering to these conventions. Nepal only did so in 1976.

In 1972, United States President Richard Nixon announced the commencement of the so-called "War on Drugs". Later, President Reagan added the position of drug czar to the President's Executive Office. In 1973, New York introduced mandatory minimum sentences of 15 years to life imprisonment for possession of more than 4 oz of a so-called hard drug, called the Rockefeller drug laws after New York Governor and later Vice President Nelson Rockefeller. Similar laws were introduced across the United States.

California's broader 'three strikes and you're out' policy adopted in 1994 was the first mandatory sentencing policy to gain widespread publicity and was subsequently adopted in most United States jurisdictions. This policy mandates life imprisonment for a third criminal conviction of any felony offense. A similar 'three strikes' policy was introduced to the United Kingdom by the Conservative government in 1997. This legislation enacted a mandatory minimum sentence of seven years for those convicted for a third time of a drug trafficking offense involving a class A drug.

Calls for legalization, relegalization or decriminalization
The terms relegalization, legalization, legal regulations, or decriminalization are used with very different meanings by different authors, something that can be confusing when the claims are not specified. Here are some variants:

 * Sales of one or more drugs (e.g., marijuana) for personal use become legal, at least if sold in a certain way.
 * Sales of an extracts with a specific substance become legal sold in a certain way, for example on prescription.
 * Use or possession of small amounts for personal use do not lead to incarceration if it is the only crime, but it is still illegal; the court or the prosecutor can impose a fine. (In that sense, Sweden both legalized and supported drug prohibition simultaneously.)
 * Use or possession of small amounts for personal use do not lead to incarceration. The case is not treated in an ordinary court, but by a commission that may recommend treatment or sanctions including fines. (In that sense, Portugal both legalized and supported drug prohibitions).

There are efforts around the world to promote the relegalization and decriminalization of drugs. These policies are often supported by proponents of liberalism and libertarianism on the grounds of individual freedom, as well as by leftists who believe prohibition to be a method of suppression of the working class by the ruling class. Prohibition of drugs is supported by proponents of conservatism as well various NGOs. A number of NGOs are aligned in support of drug prohibition as members of the World Federation Against Drugs. WFAD members support the United Nations narcotics conventions.

According to some critics, drug prohibition is responsible for enriching "organised criminal networks" while the hypothesis that the prohibition of drugs generates violence is consistent with research done over long time-series and cross-country facts.

In the United Kingdom, where the principal piece of drug prohibition legislation is the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, criticism includes:

 * Drug classification: making a hash of it?, Fifth Report of Session 2005–06, House of Commons Science and Technology Committee, which said that the present system of drug classification is based on historical assumptions, not scientific assessment
 * Development of a rational scale to assess the harm of drugs of potential misuse, David Nutt, Leslie A. King, William Saulsbury, Colin Blakemore, The Lancet, 24 March 2007, said the act is "not fit for purpose" and "the exclusion of alcohol and tobacco from the Misuse of Drugs Act is, from a scientific perspective, arbitrary"
 * The Drug Equality Alliance (DEA) argue that the Government is administering the Act arbitrarily, contrary to its purpose, contrary to the original wishes of Parliament and therefore illegally. They are currently assisting and supporting several legal challenges to this alleged maladministration.

In February 2008 the then-president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, called on the world to legalize drugs, in order, he said, to prevent the majority of violent murders occurring in Honduras. Honduras is used by cocaine smugglers as a transiting point between Colombia and the US. Honduras, with a population of 7 million, suffers an average of 8–10 murders a day, with an estimated 70% being a result of this international drug trade. The same problem is occurring in Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Mexico, according to Zelaya. In January 2012 Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos made a plea to the United States and Europe to start a global debate about legalizing drugs. This call was echoed by the Guatemalan President Otto Pérez Molina, who announced his desire to legalize drugs, saying "What I have done is put the issue back on the table."

In a report dealing with HIV in June 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) of the UN called for the decriminalization of drugs particularly including injected ones. This conclusion put WHO at odds with broader long-standing UN policy favoring criminalization. Eight states of the United States (Alaska, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington), as well as the District of Columbia, have legalized the sale of marijuana for personal recreational use as of 2017, although recreational use remains illegal under U.S. federal law. The conflict between state and federal law is, as of 2018, unresolved.

Since Uruguay in 2014 and Canada in 2018 legalized cannabis, the debate has known a new turn internationally.

Drug prohibition laws
The following individual drugs, listed under their respective family groups (e.g., barbiturates, benzodiazepines, opiates), are the most frequently sought after by drug users and as such are prohibited or otherwise heavily regulated for use in many countries:
 * Among the barbiturates, pentobarbital (Nembutal), secobarbital (Seconal), and amobarbital (Amytal)
 * Among the benzodiazepines, temazepam (Restoril; Normison; Euhypnos), flunitrazepam (Rohypnol; Hypnor; Flunipam), and alprazolam (Xanax)
 * Cannabis products, e.g., marijuana, hashish, and hashish oil
 * Among the dissociatives, phencyclidine (PCP), and ketamine are the most sought after.
 * hallucinogens such as LSD, mescaline, peyote, and psilocybin
 * Empathogen-entactogen drugs like MDMA ("ecstasy")
 * Among the narcotics, it is opiates such as morphine and codeine, and opioids such as diacetylmorphine (Heroin), hydrocodone (Vicodin; Hycodan), oxycodone (Percocet; Oxycontin), hydromorphone (Dilaudid), and oxymorphone (Opana).
 * Sedatives such as GHB and methaqualone (Quaalude)
 * Stimulants such as cocaine, amphetamine (Adderall), dextroamphetamine (Dexedrine), methamphetamine (Desoxyn), methcathinone, and methylphenidate (Ritalin)

The regulation of the above drugs varies in many countries. Alcohol possession and consumption by adults is today widely banned only in Islamic countries and certain states of India. Although alcohol prohibition was eventually repealed in the countries that enacted it, there are, for example, still parts of the United States that do not allow alcohol sales, though alcohol possession may be legal (see dry counties). New Zealand has banned the importation of chewing tobacco as part of the Smoke-free Environments Act 1990. In some parts of the world, provisions are made for the use of traditional sacraments like ayahuasca, iboga, and peyote. In Gabon, iboga (tabernanthe iboga) has been declared a national treasure and is used in rites of the Bwiti religion. The active ingredient, ibogaine, is proposed as a treatment of opioid withdrawal and various substance use disorders.

In countries where alcohol and tobacco are legal, certain measures are frequently undertaken to discourage use of these drugs. For example, packages of alcohol and tobacco sometimes communicate warnings directed towards the consumer, communicating the potential risks of partaking in the use of the substance. These drugs also frequently have special sin taxes associated with the purchase thereof, in order to recoup the losses associated with public funding for the health problems the use causes in long-term users. Restrictions on advertising also exist in many countries, and often a state holds a monopoly on manufacture, distribution, marketing, and/or the sale of these drugs.

List of principal drug prohibition laws by jurisdiction (non-exhaustive)

 * Australia: Standard for the Uniform Scheduling of Medicines and Poisons
 * Bangladesh: Narcotics Substances Control Act, 2018
 * Belize: Misuse of Drugs Act (Belize)
 * Canada: Controlled Drugs and Substances Act
 * Estonia: Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (Estonia)
 * Germany: Betäubungsmittelgesetz
 * India: Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (India)
 * Netherlands: Opium Law
 * New Zealand: Misuse of Drugs Act 1975
 * Pakistan: Control of Narcotic Substances Act 1997
 * Philippines: Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002
 * Poland: Drug Abuse Prevention Act 2005
 * Portugal: Decree-Law 15/93
 * Ireland: Misuse of Drugs Act (Ireland)
 * South Africa: Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 1992
 * Singapore: Misuse of Drugs Act (Singapore)
 * Sweden: Lag om kontroll av narkotika (SFS 1992:860)
 * Thailand: Psychotropic Substances Act (Thailand) and Narcotics Act
 * United Kingdom: Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 and Drugs Act 2005
 * United States: Controlled Substances Act
 * International: Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs

Legal dilemmas
The sentencing statutes in the United States Code that cover controlled substances are complicated. For example, a first-time offender convicted in a single proceeding for selling marijuana three times, and found to have carried a gun on him all three times (even if it were not used) is subject to a minimum sentence of 55 years in federal prison.

In Hallucinations: Behavior, Experience, and Theory (1975), senior US government researchers Louis Jolyon West and Ronald K. Siegel explain how drug prohibition can be used for selective social control:

"The role of drugs in the exercise of political control is also coming under increasing discussion. Control can be through prohibition or supply. The total or even partial prohibition of drugs gives the government considerable leverage for other types of control. An example would be the selective application of drug laws ... against selected components of the population such as members of certain minority groups or political organizations."

Linguist Noam Chomsky argues that drug laws are currently, and have historically been, used by the state to oppress sections of society it opposes:

"Very commonly substances are criminalized because they're associated with what's called the dangerous classes, poor people, or working people. So for example in England in the 19th century, there was a period when gin was criminalized and whiskey wasn't, because gin is what poor people drink."

Legal highs and prohibition
In 2013 the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction reported that there are 280 new legal drugs, known as "legal highs", available in Europe. One of the best known, mephedrone, was banned in the United Kingdom in 2010. On November 24, 2010, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration announced it would use emergency powers to ban many synthetic cannabinoids within a month. An estimated 73 new psychoactive synthetic drugs appeared on the UK market in 2012. The response of the Home Office has been to create a temporary class drug order which bans the manufacture, import, and supply (but not the possession) of named substances.

Corruption
In certain countries, there is concern that campaigns against drugs and organized crime are a cover for corrupt officials tied to drug trafficking themselves. In the United States, Federal Bureau of Narcotics chief Harry Anslinger's opponents accused him of taking bribes from the Mafia to enact prohibition and create a black market for alcohol. More recently in the Philippines, one death squad hitman told author Niko Vorobyov that he was being paid by military officers to eliminate those drug dealers who failed to pay a 'tax'. Under President Rodrigo Duterte, the Philippines has waged a bloody war against drugs that may have resulted in up to 29,000 extrajudicial killings.

When it comes to social control with cannabis, there are different aspects to consider. Not only do we assess legislative leaders and the way they vote on cannabis, but we also must consider the federal regulations and taxation that contribute to social controls. For instance, according to a report on the U.S. customs and border protections, the American industry, although banned the main usage of marijuana, was still using products similar such as hemp seeds, oils etc. leading to the previously discussed marijuana tax act.

The Tax act provisions required importers to register and pay an annual tax of $24 and receive an official stamp. Stamps for Products were then affixed to each original order form and recorded by the state revenue collector. Then, a customs collector was to maintain the custody of imported marijuana at entry ports until required documents were received, reviewed and approved.Shipments were subject to searches, seizures and forfeitures if any provisions of the law were not met. Violations would result in fines of no more than $2000 or potential imprisonment for up to 5 years. Oftentimes, this created opportunity for corruption, stolen imports that would later lead to smuggling, oftentimes by state officials and tight knit elitists.

United States

Drug possession is the crime of having one or more illegal drugs in one's possession, either for personal use, distribution, sale or otherwise. Illegal drugs fall into different categories and sentences vary depending on the amount, type of drug, circumstances, and jurisdiction. In the U.S., the penalty for illegal drug possession and sale can vary from a small fine to a prison sentence. In some states, marijuana possession is considered to be a petty offense, with the penalty being comparable to that of a speeding violation. In some municipalities, possessing a small quantity of marijuana in one's own home is not punishable at all. Generally, however, drug possession is an arrestable offense, although first-time offenders rarely serve jail time. Federal law makes even possession of "soft drugs", such as cannabis, illegal, though some local governments have laws contradicting federal laws.

In the U.S., the War on Drugs is thought to be contributing to a prison overcrowding problem. In 1996, 59.6% of prisoners were drug-related criminals. The U.S. population grew by about +25% from 1980 to 2000. In that same 20 year time period, the U.S. prison population tripled, making the U.S. the world leader in both percentage and absolute number of citizens incarcerated. The United States has 5% of the world's population, but 25% of the prisoners.

About 90% of United States prisoners are incarcerated in state jails. In 2016, about 572,000, over 44%, of the 1.3 million people in these state jails, were serving time for drug offenses. 728,000 were incarcerated for violent offenses.

The data from Federal Bureau of Prisons online statistics page states that 45.9% of prisoners were incarcerated for drug offenses, as of December 2021.

European Union
In 2004, the Council of the European Union adopted a framework decision harmonizing the minimum penal provisions for illicit drug-related activities. In particular, article 2(9) stipulates that activities may be exempt from the minimum provisions "when it is committed by its perpetrators exclusively for their own personal consumption as defined by national law." This was made, in particular, to accommodate more liberal national systems such as the Dutch coffee shops (see below) or the Spanish Cannabis Social Clubs.

The Netherlands
In the Netherlands, cannabis and other "soft" drugs are decriminalised in small quantities. The Dutch government treats the problem as more of a public health issue than a criminal issue. Contrary to popular belief, cannabis is still technically illegal. Coffee shops that sell cannabis to people 18 or above are tolerated, and pay taxes like any other business for their cannabis and hashish sales, although distribution is a grey area that the authorities would rather not go into as it is not decriminalised. Many "coffee shops" are found in Amsterdam and cater mainly to the large tourist trade; the local consumption rate is far lower than in the US.

The administrative bodies responsible for enforcing the drug policies include the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations, and the Ministry of Finance. Local authorities also shape local policy, within the national framework.

When compared to other countries, Dutch drug consumption falls in the European average at six per cent regular use (twenty-one per cent at some point in life) and considerably lower than the Anglo-Saxon countries headed by the United States with an eight per cent recurring use (thirty-four at some point in life).

Australia
A Nielsen poll in 2012 found that only 27% of voters favoured decriminalisation. Australia has steep penalties for growing and using drugs even for personal use. with Western Australia having the toughest laws. There is an associated anti-drug culture amongst a significant number of Australians. Law enforcement targets drugs, particularly in the party scene. In 2012, crime statistics in Victoria revealed that police were increasingly arresting users rather than dealers, and the Liberal government banned the sale of bongs that year.

Indonesia
Indonesia carries a maximum penalty of death for drug dealing, and a maximum of 15 years prison for drug use. In 2004, Australian citizen Schapelle Corby was convicted of smuggling 4.4 kilograms of cannabis into Bali, a crime that carried a maximum penalty of death. Her trial reached the verdict of guilty with a punishment of 20 years imprisonment. Corby claimed to be an unwitting drug mule. Australian citizens known as the "Bali Nine" were caught smuggling heroin. Two of the nine, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, were executed April 29, 2015 along with six other foreign nationals. In August 2005, Australian model Michelle Leslie was arrested with two ecstasy pills. She pleaded guilty to possession and in November 2005 was sentenced to 3 months imprisonment, which she was deemed to have already served, and was released from prison immediately upon her admission of guilt on the charge of possession.

At the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, Indonesia, along with India, Turkey, Pakistan and some South American countries opposed the criminalisation of drugs.

Republic of China (Taiwan)
Taiwan carries a maximum penalty of death for drug trafficking, while smoking tobacco and wine are classified as legal entertainment drug. The Department of Health is in charge of drug prohibition.

Cost
In 2020, the direct cost of drug prohibition to United States taxpayers was estimated at over $40 billion annually. Prohibition can increase organized crime, government corruption, and mass incarceration via the trade in illegal drugs, while racial and gender disparities in enforcement are evident.

Although drug prohibition is often portrayed by proponents as a measure to improve public health, evidence is lacking. In 2016, the Johns Hopkins–Lancet Commission concluded that the "harms of prohibition far outweigh the benefits", citing increased risk of overdoses and HIV infection and detrimental effects on the social determinants of health. Some proponents argue that drug prohibition's effect on suppressing usage rates (although the magnitude of this effect is unknown) outweighs the negative effects of prohibition.

Alternative approaches to prohibition include drug legalization, drug decriminalization, and government monopoly.

title: Drug prohibition