Habit Forming

by Elizabeth Kelly Gray

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, middle-class drug users, while criticizing such use by poor or working-class people and people of color. When habituation was associated with middle-class 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 habit-forming 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.

Genres: History

352 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2022

Reviews

[Hailey Snider]

DNF'ing at 60% through.

Long story short, Opium, Opium, Opium, Habitué, Habitué, Opium, Habitué, Rich people, Frail Women, Habitué, Opium, China.

Turns out to be not as interesting as anticipated. Perhaps another author could inject some fun and intrigue into this time period

[Chris]

This book just goes on and on with no new information after the first few chapters.