16. A Massive Post-War Addiction Epidemic
Back in the mid-nineteenth century, the potential for drug addiction was little known, and even among those who knew, the risk was deemed acceptable. When dealing with the immediate pressing problems of treating the Civil War’s injured and sick, the risk of future morphine and opium addiction down the road were seen as lesser evils that could be dealt with later.
“Later” came when the soldiers were discharged from the hospitals. It is estimated that over 400,000 Civil War became morphine addicts because of their wartime experiences. The term “Soldiers Disease” was coined to describe that addiction. Many addicts were readily identifiable by a small bag dangling from a leather thong around their neck, containing morphine tablets and a hypodermic needle. It is perhaps unsurprising that the most chaotic and violent period of the Wild West occurred within a few years of the Civil War’s end. That was when many war veterans still struggling with addiction began arriving in the West.
