An interesting topic of drug use in the 1800s is women using drugs, especially laudanum and morphine. These women were typically high-society types who used laudanum and morphine as a cure for their boredom. As well as the high-society types, many working class women such as seamstresses used opiates to push themselves through the long hours their jobs sometimes demanded. In one 1880 study cited in Women and Addiction in the United States – 1850 to 1920, it was found that 72% of opium users in Chicago were women. This was mostly due to the fact that doctors prescribed opiates almost limitlessly, especially to women who were seen as being less capable of managing pain.

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.

Cocaine was first separated from the coca plant in 1844. It wasn’t until years later that the likes of Dr. William Halstead and Sigmund Freud discovered their medical and recreational uses. Ironically, Dr. Halstead had to eventually “cure” his cocaine addiction with morphine, while Sigmund Freud prescribed his friend cocaine to “cure” morphine addiction. In 1885, Coca-Cola, the drink we all know and love was introduced. The difference is that instead of the caffeine that’s in it today, it relied on coca extracts for its effects. It wasn’t until 1906 when the federal pure food and drug law was enacted and they had to switch to leaves with the cocaine removed.