APPOMATTOX'S ADDICTS

Q: I've often read that there were 500,000 morphine addicts running around
after the civil War. Is this true? If so, did narcotics have a deleterious
effect on the Old West? How many cowboys were wacko on these then-legal drugs?

Bill, via the Internet

A: You know, war is a bad thing. Even if we leave out combat, deaths and
injuries, civilian casualties, property damage, rape and pillage, lingering
danger of unexploded munitions, economic disruption, refugees, famine and
disease, and possible destruction of the planet, we're still left with
things like increased drug addiction.

We've already talked about the huge increase in smoking related diseases due
to wide distribution of cigarettes to GIs during World War II. Now lets turn
to the massive upswing in narcotics addiction in the latter part of the 19th
century - due, some feel, to the liberal use of morphine to ease the
suffering of wounded soldiers during the Civil War.

At the beginning of the 19th century drug addiction was rare in the
English-speaking world, but at the end of the century it was common, at
least in the United States. By a conservative estimate the United States had
200,000 addicts in 1900, with most of the increase in the late 1800s. The
Civil War is often blamed for this, and, in fact, after the war many called
morphine addiction "the army disease."

Some historians think the war's influence has been exaggerated. A major
factor, no doubt, was the simple fact that more stuff became available as
scientists explored the wonders of drug chemistry. Morphine, for example,
was first synthesized in 1803, cocaine in 1859.

Still, there's no denying the Civil War's impact. Narcotics were handed out
like candy by army surgeons, who were surrounded by suffering and had few
remedies to offer other than painkillers. Nearly 10 million opium pills were
issued to Union soldiers, along with 2.8 million ounces of other opium
preparations; surely Confederate troops had quite a bit of opium, too.

One doctor reported keeping a wad of "blue mass" (a powdered mercury
compound) in one pocket and a ball of opium in the other. He'd ask soldiers,
"How are your bowels?" If the answer was "open" (due to diarrhea), the
soldier got opium; if "closed" (presumably because of constipation), mercury.

Opiates were used to treat not just wounds but also such chronic campaign
diseases as diarrhea, dysentery, and malaria. Narcotics became even more
popular after the war as invalid veterans sought relief from constant pain.

But soldiers weren't the only or even the major users of drugs, nor was drug
abuse more prevalent in the Old West, as you suggest. On the contrary,
casual use of hard drugs was widespread. Several surveys in the Midwest
found that the majority of opiate addicts were women; they took drugs for
neuralgia, morning sickness, or menstrual pain.

Mary Chesnut, whose diary was read to haunting effect in Ken Burns' Civil
War documentary series, was a regular user. Narcotics could be found in the
patent medicines of the day as well as in commonly prescribed medications
like laudanum and paregoric, inexpensive opiates that could be ordered
through the sears catalog.

Some raised the alarm about morphine addiction as the 19th century drew to a
close, but often the solution was substituting some other drug. In 1884
Sigmund Freud recommended cocaine as a means of treating morphine and
alcohol addiction. (He also wrote glowingly of coke's value as a mental
stimulant and aphrodisiac, views that were still being floated nearly a
century later.)

Vin Mariani, a mixture of cocaine and wine introduced in 1865, became a
popular cure-all. Coca-Cola, first concocted in 1886, initially contained a
small amount of cocaine. In 1898 the Bayer company began marketing heroin as
an over-the-counter cough suppressant. (Contrary to legend, however, it was
not touted as a cure for morphine addiction.)

Reaction, often hysterical, soon set in. Drug opponents in the South claimed
that cocaine drove black men to rape white women - perhaps one reason the
Atlanta-based Coca-Cola Co. withdrew cocaine from its recipe in 1903.
Increasingly stringent anti-drug laws were passed, to the point where even
mild drugs like marijuana became illegal.

Given all this, it seems clear you can't blame any one event for the drug
culture. Still, if you want to let a lot of bad things loose in the world
fast, ain't nothin' beats a war.

- - Cecil Adams

Comments, questions? Take it up with Cecil on the Straight Dope message
board, www.straightdope.com, or write him at the Chicago Reader, 11 E.
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