Morbid Fact Du Jour For April 10, 2011
Today’s Plentiful Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
Real-life cowboys are remembered for bellying up to the bar, but many legendary figures, including Wild Bill Hickock and Kit Carson, preferred opium dens over saloons. During the Civil War, morphine was frequently more plentiful to the troops than food rations, such that veterans on both sides, an estimated 50,000 people, became opium addicts. In 1900 morphine addiction was considered such a serious social epidemic that a group called the Saint James Society offered free heroin in the mail to anyone wishing to kick morphine. By 1925 there were 200,000 heroin addicts in the U.S. Kit Carson died of a “ruptured artery in his throat,” a typical complication caused by smoking opium.
Culled from: Genius and Heroin: The Illustrated Catalogue of Creativity, Obsession, and Reckless Abandon Through the Ages
Damn, heroin for free in the mail???? Now I know why they called them the Good Old Days!
