The Drug War Apparatus

The first opioid crisis in the late 19th century was just simply industrialization brought a whole range of new products that consumers were unfamiliar with. As these drugs were sold with relatively few limits there was a rise of this kind of behavior that was distressing at the time of compulsive use even when it was harmful. Those other consumers they began to call them dope fiends. People who were purposefully deviant and using drugs not because they were health seeking but because they wanted undeserved pleasure.