Green mountain opium eaters : a history of early addiction in Vermont / Gary G. Shattuck.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Shattuck, Gary G., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Opium abuse--Vermont--History--19th century.

Opium abuse.

History.

Vermont.

Physical Description:

174 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Charleston, SC : The History Press, 2017.

Summary:

The green mountains, lush valleys and riotous fall colors of idyllic nineteenth-century Vermont masked a sinister underbelly. By 1900, the state was in the throes of a widespread opium epidemic that saw more than 3.3 million doses of the drug being distributed to inhabitants each and every month. Decades of infighting within the medical profession, complicit doctors and druggists, unrestricted access to opium and bogus patent medicines all contributed to the problem. Those conflicts were compounded by a hands-off legislature focused on prohibiting the consumption of alcohol. Historian Gary G. Shattuck traces this unusual aspect of Vermont's past. Book jacket.

Contents:

Early abuses

Opium arrives

The pitfalls of ignorance

Internecine squabbles

"Medicinomania"

"Most take it in the form of morphine"

"A crying evil of the day"

3,333,000 doses

Afermath.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 153-171) and index.

ISBN:

1467136948

9781467136945

OCLC:

973806733

Publisher Number:

99972578728