Opium: A History.

Martin Booth. New York: St. Martin's, 1998.

English author Martin Booth has written a nearly complete history of opium, the substance from which morphine and heroin are derived. In this book you will find that as far back as Hippocrates opium was used to alleviate physical suffering. By the nineteenth century it had become a staple in patent medicines and was being taken recreationally for its languid, stupor-like effects. Thomas DeQuincey sang its praises and detailed the horrors of addiction in Confessions of an English Opium Eater (1821). Other Romantic writers such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge were also users.

With the isolation in 1803 of morphine, the principal ingredient of opium, and the invention of the hypodermic syringe in 1853, the stage was set for an addiction epidemic. It came with the Civil War when so many wounded soldiers were given "God's Own Medicine" that their ensuing addiction came to be called "Soldier's Disease." But there was an even more addictive form of opium on the horizon. In 1874, a London pharmacist searching for a non-addictive alternative to morphine discovered a derivative of that substance that was labeled diacetylmorphine. It languished in the labs until 1898 when Bayer pharmaceuticals decided to market the drug as a cough suppressant. Named Heroin, from the German word meaning "heroic:," it proved to be very popular with the public but unfortunately there was a significant downside. Heroin turns out to be even more addicting than morphine.

In 1914 the United States Congress passed the Harrison Act which made opiates off-limits to addicts. The government thought by prohibiting addicts from getting their drugs the addiction problem could be solved. Instead a black market sprang up to supply addicts who roamed the city dumps looking for scraps to sell (and so the term "junkie" came about). The pro drug zeitgeist of the 1960s resulted in far more heroin users and today there are an estimated 250,000 heroin addicts in New York City alone.

Because of the tremendous profits that can be made from the heroin trade and because it is such a powerfully addictive substance, Booth advises that the heroin problem will not be easily solved. For those who want a solid historical background about how we got ourselves into this mess, including some very interesting British perspectives on the subject, I highly recommend this book.

Language plays a tremendous role in human affairs. It serves as a means of cooperation and as a weapon of conflict. With it, men can solve problems, erect the towering structures of science and poetry - and talk themselves into insanity and social confusion.

- Irving J. Lee