Habit Forming

Habit Forming: Drug Addiction in America, 1776-1914 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 people used cocaine and heroin as medicine.