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

The first opium dens in the United States originated in San Francisco's Chinatown 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 bunks or carpets on which they could relax and smoke a intoxicating mixture, and everything necessary for smoking.

In San Francisco and California, opium was especially 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 in an opium den in San Francisco "two girls no older than 17 years old, dressed as if for a Sunday picnic."

To break the bad habit, the federal government of Theodore Roosevelt adopted in 1906 the law on the quality of food and medicines, which required prescribing on the packaging of a product that it contains dangerous and addictive substances.

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

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

1890.