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: : i know that lewis carroll did opium through out his life. however i can not find it anywhere on the net. do you know any references where i could find anything on this subject matter? : I found this quote somewhere: : <begin> : Q: Dear Kristine: When did drugs become ? Do you feel history can teach us about drug use and perils? : —B.S. : A: Dear B.S.: Typically, drugs became at just about the same that they became a public problem. Laudanum and other opium derivatives were sold for health complaints at apothecaries shops and, originally, Coca-Cola contained cocaine, which provided the promised "lift" that the company advertised. And, cocaine was at one time substituted for morphine in a misguided attempt to cure addicts. Similar mistakes were made when treating soldiers of the Civil War and even W.W.I, when the wounded typically became addicted to opiate painkillers. : In 1898, the Bayer Drug Company began marketing a product called Heroin, the, "heroic drug with the ability of morphine to relieve pain, yet is safer." Lewis Carroll and Arthur Conan Doyle both used cocaine and opium, with Carroll's ALICE IN WONDERLAND often said to have been written whilst he was in a drug induced state. Samuel Coleridge used opium and laudanum and let us not forget Thomas de Quincey and his 1822 work, CONFESSIONS OF AN ENGLISH OPIUM EATER. Both men claim to have first turned to the drugs for medicinal reasons, like pain or neuralgic complaints. In 1803, Friedrich Serturner was able to derive both codeine and morphine from opium. Drug use would be facilitated by the invention of the hypodermic syringe : Restrictive legislation first ped in Britain 1860, and the importation of smoking opium was banned in 1909. For more detailed information, try OPIUM AND THE PEOPLE: OPIATE USE IN 19TH CENTURY ENGLAND by ia Berridge and Griffith Edwards, St. Martin's (1982) and David Courtwright's DARK PARADISE: OPIATE ADDICTION IN AMERICA BEFORE 1940 from HUP (1940). : As to your last question, history can teach us many things about many subjects. Will society ever learn from it's past mistakes? Will rs ever take a parent's advice on face value and go on to follow it? No. But allow me to ask you - can people become addicted to drugs if drugs were not available to them? : <end>

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