Sweet datura: photos of opium dens in the USA of the XX century

The first opium dens in the United States appeared in the Chinatown of San Francisco in the 1840s and 1850s and soon captured all segments of the population. The heyday of use occurred in the 80-90s of the XIX century, which coincided with the formation of the teetotalers ' movement. 

A container with 5 ounces of opium (about 140 g) cost eight dollars, it could be bought mainly in Chinese shops. In the dens, customers were provided with beds or carpets on which they could relax and smoke a intoxicating mixture, and everything necessary for smoking. 

In San Francisco and California, opium was particularly readily available.

Although representatives of both sexes were fond of opium, women were given pipes of the worst quality, since the Chinese thought that after women they spoiled.

By that time, the drug had spread far to the east: to New York, Chicago, St. Louis and New Orleans.

Both men and women of the middle and upper classes visited the brothels.

A reporter for The Examiner newspaper wrote in an article in 1882 that he saw "two girls no older than 17 years old dressed as if for a Sunday picnic" in an opium den in San Francisco.

To break the bad habit, the federal government of Theodore Roosevelt passed the Food and Medical Products Quality Act in 1906, which required prescribing on the packaging of a product that it contains dangerous and addictive substances.

In 1914, the federal Harrison Drug Law was issued, according to which anyone who manufactured, mixed, imported, sold, distributed any form of cocaine and opiates was obliged to pay a tax.

By the beginning of World War II, opium dens had almost disappeared, although one establishment at 295 Broome Street in New York continued to operate until 1957.

The year is 1890.