# Historical Periods When Large Numbers of People Were High?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-periods-when-large-numbers-of-people-were-high/452908>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 14, 2008, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-periods-when-large-numbers-of-people-were-high/452908 "2008-06-14T11:52:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Full\_Metal\_Lotus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/df705f/32.png) [@Full\_Metal\_Lotus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Full_Metal_Lotus)\
**Post date:** [June 15, 2008, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-periods-when-large-numbers-of-people-were-high/452908/21 "2008-06-15T01:54:15Z")

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[QUOTE=Siam Sam]  
Don’t forget around 1900, there were a lot of little old lady drug addicts. Routine cures for every sort of ailment contained various amounts of opiates.

The Civil War produced a large number of drug addicts. I have an interesting book called _Dark Paradise: Opiate Addiction in America before 1940_, by David T. Courtwright, that goes into that.  
[/QUOTE]

Those “Nerve Tonics” were often heavily laced with either cocaine, opium or sometimes both (Sorry I have no cite, anecdotal evidence from having worked in a museum). No wonder granny got “nervous” when she didn’t get her tonic - she was going through withdrawal.

Also, I remember a perusal of the 1904 Sear Roebuck catologue’s medical pages contained several “Patent Medicines” that were essentially pure opium.

Regards  
FML

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