In 1804, Friedrich Sertürner first extracted Morphine from the opium poppy. It wasn’t until a few years later that he decided to try it out on himself, three young boys, three dogs, and a mouse. All four of the people almost died of respiratory repression.  The drug was eventually released. Doctors believed it to be a non-addictive alternative to opium because they believed that injecting it directly into the bloodstream circumvented the process that caused addiction. This was obviously proven very quickly, as many Civil War soldiers came back addicted to morphine. Later in the 1800s, morphine was prescribed as a substitute for alcohol addiction.