Drug Addiction In The 19th Century Essay

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How drug addiction in the 19th century compares to today. Since the 19th century when Americans first discovered new wonder drugs like morphine, heroin, and cocaine, our society has confronted the problem of drug abuse and addiction. Statistics show that in 1906, 25 million people in the world were using opium, which is compared to 16.5 opiate users today. There were other drugs known about, but alcohol was the most commonly used substance for drugs. Unfortunately there were not many laws enforcing prohibition therefore causing many individuals to suffer from drug abuse. One of the main substances that caused an abuse problem was alcohol. Alcohol was one of the most substances used as a drug which led to many people suffering from addictions. Even starting as early as the 18th century, alcohol in the form of rum played a role in the slave trade triangle of the colonies in the Americas while England was under the influence of a "gin epidemic". As time progressed and into the 19th century, the United States of America…show more content…
Web. www.undrugcontrol.info). Still from 1842 until the 1980s, marijuana, generally called Cannabis Indica or Indian Hemp extractums, was one of the three items (after alcohol and opium)was the most used in patent and prescription drugs. They were used in in massive doses, usually by oral ingestion. The doses given during the 19th Century to American infants, children, youth, adults, women in childbirth, and senior citizens, in one day, were equal to a current moderate-to-heavy American marijuana user that probably consumes in a month or two. During the 1930s, most Americans focused on heroin being a taboo. Marijuana however, was about to share that distinction, and started being labeled as: the devil drug,’ the ‘assassin of youth,’ and the ‘weed of madness.’(Narconon News. N.p., 30 June 2009. Web. 15 Mar.

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