What the First Opioid Epidemic Revealed About Early 20th-Century American Society
America’s first opioid epidemic started during the Civil War and stretched into the early 20th century. For the first 30 years of the epidemic, the opiate crisis existed primarily amongst Civil War veterans and upper and middle class white women, who received opiates to mitigate menstrual cramps. However, a demographic shift occurred in the early 20th century: opiate use decreased amongst these groups while simultaneously increasing amongst lower class workers, immigrants, and young people who were seen as delinquents. This demographic shift, coupled with colonial interests, spurred a period of regulation towards the highly-addictive drugs. This regulatory era culminated with the Harrison Narcotics Act of 1914 — a law that essentially functioned as a prohibition of opiates. This law and other primary and secondary sources provide insight into the historical setting that existed at the time regulation was passed. Opiates can be “located” in this era, and these drugs reveal cultural and political factors such as classism, nativism, and imperialism that existed during this time.
Because opiates provided instant relief and were so heavily relied on during the war, tens of thousands of Civil War veterans developed opiate addictions in the years following the war. This was aided by the fact that there were few legal restrictions on opium, meaning that veterans could easily obtain it. At the same time, doctors were impressed by the almost immediate results opium offered, so they prescribed opiates heavily in the 19th century (Trickey). Doctors also heavily prescribed opiates to wealthier white women, leading this population to constitute the majority of opiate addicts towards the end of the 19th century. As a result, the opiate epidemic up until the end of the 19th century mainly occurred amongst affluent white women and Civil War veterans.
As stigmas took hold and doctors recognized the harms of opiate addiction at the end of the 19th century, opiates became more heavily consumed by new sets of people: Chinese immigrants, low-income workers, and young people on the street. Once the typical opiate user became an Asian immigrant or a low-class American, a strong push for the prohibition of opiates emerged (Trickey). This shift in attitudes towards opiates based on the change in demographics of opiate addicts reveals the prevalence of classism and nativism at this time. At this time, abhorrent classism and nativism dominated society. During the Gilded Age, the divide between rich and poor had never been so extreme, and an influx of Asian immigrants at this time led to widespread anti-immigrant sentiment. Because of these underlying sentiments, wealthier white Americans began to view opiate addiction not as a health problem but as a crime once opiate addiction became concentrated amongst these groups.
During this time period, the United States was also engaged in an imperial blitz, colonizing both the Philippines and Puerto Rico. Colonial ambitions were slowed, however, by the prevalence of opium in the U.S.: in the Philippines, where a steady drug trade was present, Americans who framed their colonialism as a means of civilizing others struggled to justify their actions when the U.S. lacked any sort of opiate policy itself (Trickey). The presence of an opium trade in one of its territories also made it more difficult for the U.S. to colonize other territories under this guise of reform. To boost its colonial intentions, the U.S. began passing regulation. The Harrison Narcotics Act of 1914 effectively prohibited opiates in the United States. It also extended the opiate prohibition to the Philippines, stating, “In Porto Rico and the Philippine Islands the administration of this Act, the collection of said special tax, and the issuance of the order forms specified in section two shall be performed by the appropriate internal revenue officers of these governments” (P.L., 63-223). Unlike how quinine was used as the tool of the empire, opiates inhibited the empire. The U.S.’s commitment to suppressing opiate usage at home and its territories to advance its colonial interests reflects the significance of imperialism in this era.
A news article detailing the Harrison Narcotics Act, (La Crosse Public Library Archives 3)
These examples show that the nation’s first opiate epidemic was located in a setting that featured colonialism, as well as sentiments of classism and nativism. These pertinent features of the setting had a large impact on how opiates were viewed and regulated. Opiates, therefore, reveal a lot about the United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century.