The Congressional Record is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress. It is published daily when Congress is in session. The Congressional Record began publication in 1873. Debates for sessions prior to 1873 are recorded in The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States (1789-1824), the Register of Debates in Congress (1824-1837), and the Congressional Globe (1833-1873)

This collection examines the ambiguous relationship be-tween the politically mute, average drug user and the small number, socially distant from the common user, who started the work of undermining official definitions of drug use. The drug users' identification with the issues of power, freedom, oppression, and libertarianism, triggered by the experience of police and penal regulations, is discussed, as is the influence of the growth in the collective competence of users and the changes in the using population on the shifting image of drugs.