Overrun? No. But it was about .5% of the population, higher than today.
"People bought the stuff and made their own medicines with it."
And became addicted. Many didn't know what they were buying or what was contained in these elixers. Manufacturers like Coca-Cola didn't realized how addicting their beverages were.
"The government created the problem"
No, the government ended the problem. More correctly, they reduced the size and scope of the problem by about 90%.
Overrun? No. But it was about .5% of the population, higher than today.
Bull.
"There were an estimated 980,000 hardcore heroin addicts in the United States [that's about 0.35% of the population] in 1999, 50 percent more than the estimated 630,000 hardcore addicts in 1992."
--www.usdoj.gov/ndic/pubs07/794/heroin.htm
"The demand for both powdered and crack cocaine in the United States is high. Among those using cocaine in the United States during 2000, 3.6 million [about 1.3% of the population] were hardcore users who spent more than $36 billion on the drug in that year."
--http://www.usdoj.gov/ndic/pubs07/794/cocaine.htm
_______________________________
Using figures from the USDOJ, and a population of 280,000,000, the rate of addiction to either cocaine or heroin in 2000 is about 1.6%, or just over 3X the 0.5% rate in 1900.
The DOJ and ONDCP also says the numbers you cite are bogus:
"Cautious evaluation of this data is necessary because the NHSDA cannot accurately measure rare or stigmatized drug use, relying as it does on self-reporting and on people residing in households. In alternate research, the number of hardcore* users of heroin in 1998 was estimated to be 980,000,"
"Estimates of heroin use from the NHSDA are considered very conservative due to the probable underreporting and undercoverage of the population of heroin users."
No, the government ended the problem. More correctly, they reduced the size and scope of the problem by about 90%.
HAHAHA!