19th Century Was Just the Beginning

Everywhere you turn anymore a new celebrity is making the headlines for drug overdose, and they're just a small fraction of the overall picture. There were 27,658 deaths from drug overdose alone in the US in 2007, and half were due to opioid overdose. The main reason why people aren't aware of the severity of this situation, is that not every "average joe" who dies makes the front cover of US Weekly. So the question that's on my mind is, "How did we get here?" I somehow find myself going back to the 19th century, when opium was introduced to Europe in abundant amounts through sailors and travelers. Opium is a reddish-brown heavy-scented addictive drug prepared from the juice of the opium poppy, used as a narcotic and in medicine as an analgesic. Many notable European figures were either casual users or hard-core addicts. Some of the more well-known were Pablo Picasso, Allister Crowley, and Charles Baudelaire. Many writers of the time who also were users, began to romanticize it's use. They gave it a sense of mysterious allure, which was extremely far-fetched from the harsh reality. Many of those who did opium went to this so-called "opium den", which generally were unfurnished, grimy rooms in back alleys, where addicts could surrender to the to their pernicious habit untroubled. Not all opium dens were in poor condition; in Paris alone they had up to 1,200 opium smoking establishments. Many sought a cultural craving for foreign luxuries, which only helped to expand the curiosity of the newly found drug. Was this the beginning of what a large portion of the world suffers from today? I think so.

"The 19th century witnessed the rise of the Bohemian salon-one characterized by lack of money (or at least unemployment), long hair, loud ranting against the bourgeoisie, unruly sexual behavior, and copius consumption of wine, absinthe, opium, hashish and other substances d'abus."

Sources: 

http://unrepentantoldhippie.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/opium-museum-photo-gallery_1258644918603.png

http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=opium&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8#hl=en&client=safari&rls=en&q=opium&tbs=dfn:1&tbo=u&sa=X&ei=enROULrMMKP10gHH14DgBw&sqi=2&ved=0CB0QkQ4&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&fp=e3490c762154f3f1&biw=1164&bih=818

http://news.yahoo.com/facts-statistics-drug-overdose-deaths-212600826.html

http://jreuter.hubpages.com/hub/Opium-Use-in-19th-Century-Europe