Habit Forming: Drug Addiction in America, 1776-1914
Elizabeth Kelly Gray
Feb 2023 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Kitty Hendrix
headphones
Audiobook
13 hr 9 min
Unabridged
family_home
Eligible
info
reportRatings and reviews aren’t verified Learn More
Want a 1 hr 18 min sample? Listen anytime, even offline.
Add
About this audiobook
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.
About the author
Elizabeth Kelly Gray is associate professor of history at Towson University.
Kitty Hendrix is an Audie Award-nominated and AudioFile Award-winning actor who has narrated books in nearly every genre. With an extensive background in theater, indie film, and musical performance, Kitty loves bringing her acting skills to audiobook narration. She lives in New York City with her husband and Shiba Inu.
Rate this audiobook
Tell us what you think.
Listening information
Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can read books purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.
