Description

Habitual drug use in the United States is at least as old as the nation itself Habit Forming traces the history of unregulated drug use and dependency before 1914 when the Harrison Narcotic Tax Act limited sales of opiates and cocaine under US law Many Americans used opiates and other drugs medically and became addicted Some tried Hasheesh Candy injected morphine or visited opium dens but neither use nor addiction was linked to crime due to the dearth of restrictive laws After the Civil War American presses published extensively about domestic addiction Later in the nineteenth century many used cocaine and heroin as medicine As addiction became a major public health issue commentators typically sympathized with white middleclass drug users while criticizing such use by poor or workingclass people and people of color When habituation was associated with middleclass morphine users few advocated for restricted drug access By the 1910s as use was increasingly associated with poor young men support for regulations increased In outlawing users access to habitforming drugs at the national level a public health problem became a larger legal and social problem one with an enduring influence on American drug laws and their enforcement