19. Ignorance of the Risks of Drug Addiction
The potential for drug addiction was little known in the mid-nineteenth century, and even when known, the risk was deemed acceptable. Faced with the immediate pressing problem of treating the war’s injured and sick, the risk of future drug addiction was seen as a lesser evil 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 veterans became morphine addicts because of their wartime experiences. The term “Soldier’s 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. Unsurprisingly, 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.
