[DiogenesLamp]

If you have better numbers on U.S. drug addiction in 1880, I'd be fascinated to see them. Absent that, the available evidence is that U.S. opium addiction was low and declining when it was legal.

Given that widespread opium and Heroin usage mostly began due to the treatment of wounds suffered in the civil war, it is no great leap of faith to conclude that if usage declined, it was likely the result of death. Dying will reduce usage you know.

I would be suspicious of any hard numbers coming from this era because there was little reason for anyone to be keeping records of such things at that time.

China is not America, and there's no evidence that America's addiction rate was ever anything remotely like China's.

Of course it wasn't. In 1842 the Chinese legalized Opium. By 1900, half of Manchuria was addicted. We started pretty much in the 1863 era. By 1906 we started regulating drugs and in 1914 we started banning them. We never let it get as bad as China did because we took steps to stop it before it got that bad. Had we not taken these steps, we would have seen the same addiction rates that China suffered.

[ConservingFreedom]

In 1842 the Chinese legalized Opium. By 1900, half of Manchuria was addicted. We started pretty much in the 1863 era.

Opium was legal since the nation's founding - Ben Franklin used laudanum. But even accepting your cooked books ...

By 1906 we started regulating drugs

America had (no less than) 43 years to China's 58, and yet as you acknowledge America's addiction rate was never anything remotely like China's. Looks like the addiction experts are right to say culture and environment are important factors.