Morphine's Post-Civil War: A Case Study

According to Lewy, “Since they were the most reliable drugs in their medicine cabinet, opium and morphine were used extensively by Civil War surgeons as pain relievers and for treating diarrhea.” Lewy is trying to prove how common morphine and opium were during the Civil war and how extensive the use was in treating common illnesses. Apparently “by the end of the war the Union Army had issued 2,093 syringes to about 11,000 surgeons, though probably fewer actually used the instrument. After the war many Yankee physicians recalled that syringes had been unavailable to them in the field, but contradicting evidence suggests that physicians often used syringes, especially towards the end of the war.”2 Syringes were available to surgeons during the Civil War, and allowed room for plenty of administration of drugs, which led to an increased chance for addiction. Opium and morphine were the drug of choice during this time, and some of the

The novel, Dreamland by Sam Quinones, goes into depth about the Opiate Epidemic in America. Quinones really focuses on a town called Portsmouth located near the Ohio River. This is a town that at one point in time was booming, until the epidemic reached Portsmouth and took over the town and surrounding areas. The epidemic is not only in Portsmouth, but around the world. The problems have impacted the care of patients when dealing with pain medication and if the patient really needs it. There are some key things that Quinones keys in on like the difference between the “Xalisco Boys” and the “Drug Cartel”, what the “Pain Revolution” was, and what allowed the “pill mills” to flourish.

During 1971, two members of Congress: Robert Steele & John Murphy revealed an alarming report stating that 15 percent of U.S. servicemen in the Vietnam war were addicted to Heroin. The armed forces were trying to deal with the drug problem by combining military discipline with amnesty. Anybody discovered possessing or using illicit drugs was subject to court martial and dishonorable discharge from the service. Many of these drug users that voluntarily looked for help might be offered amnesty and brief treatment. The policy apparently barely had an impact. Heroin abuse and its social effects had increased drastically over the following year and a half.

Imagine going through all the pain in surgery and infections. Medicine during the Civil War can be compared to today’s medicine. For instance the surgical instruments, infections, where surgeries took place and where they take place now, sanitized and unsanitized tools and equipment. Today’s infections have changed greatly over time due to the change in sanitary conditions and the equipments surgeons use today.

620,00 soldiers died in the Civil War, of those 2/3 of the deceased were struck down by disease. Today modern medicine has solved many problems. For example, we now understand the importance of sanitation, and how diseases spreads. However back in the 1800's things like the importance of sanitation and diseases spreading were not hugely known about. Which lead to a lot problems and disgusting surroundings for doctors and patients.

Jake Barnes: "You're not an aficionado?" Spanish waiter: "Me? What are bulls? Animals. Brute animals... A cornada right through the back. For fun-you understand." (Hemingway, 67)    Why does everybody hate Robert Cohn? At the beginning of Hemingway's novel, The Sun Also Rises, Jake Barnes, the story's point-of-view character, wants us to believe that he has at least some appreciation for Cohn. He relates some of Cohn's life for us, how at Princeton he was a middle weight boxing champ, how despite his physical prowess he had feelings of "shyness and inferiority...being treated as a Jew," (Hemingway, 11) his turbulent career as a magazine editor and his failed marriage. It's

Drugs first surfaced in the United States in the 1800s. After the Civil War opium become very popular and was used medicinally. Following opium was cocaine which was also used as a health remedy but near the end of the 19th century opium and cocaine abuse peaked and local governments began to prohibit opium dens and importation. In 1914 the first federal drug policy, the Harrison Narcotics act, is passed and drugs are no longer seen as harmless remedies. The act aggressively regulated the manufacturing of marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and morphine. During the 50’s more federal drug policies were passed and drugs began to become more criminalized. The 60’s saw a rise in counter-culture and substances such as marijuana and LSD saw widespread use. The demand for drugs skyrocketed in the 1960s. In 1971 President Nixon declared drug abuse America 's number one enemy and proclaimed that we must wave a all out offensive. After President Nixon declared the War on Drugs in 1971, the United States has spent more than a trillion dollars on this failing policy that not only has had no effect on the amount of drugs being used in the United States and has increased the number of people incarcerated on drug charges from just 50,000 to over half a million, but also has helped fuel drug cartels and foment violence and death through overdoses from uncontrolled drug potency and turf wars between street gangs.

If you have been working in EMS for longer than a week you will probably already know the epidemic that America is facing. The epidemic that I am referring to has no discrimination and anyone can fall victim to it. If it hasn't already destroyed your family in some way then you are one of the lucky few.

The history of opioids in America provides a reoccurring theme riddled with misuse, abuse, and addiction. One could even go as far as to call it a timeless theme, as the same problems that affected the past still stand steadfast today. It all started in 1806 with the isolation of Morphine by chemist Friedrich Sertürner (Acock, 1993). Soon after its creation, this analgesic opiate became the primary treatment in the United States for various medical ailments including pain, anxiety, and respiratory problems (Acock, 1993). Acock (1993) reveals that opioids were widely used during the Civil War, with numbers reaching up to ten million opioid pills for the Union Army alone. Morphine was essentially the cure-all on the battlefield. The result

Injured veterans in the mid-1800s would become hooked because they were treated with morphine to help dull the pain of early medical procedures. The Bayer Co., manufacturers of the household brand Bayer aspirin, started producing heroin in 1898, and the effects were so immediate that it was considered a cure-all medicine. It was rushed to shelves. Heroin use spread greatly in popularity during the following decades. Back in the days of early pharmaceuticals, there wasn’t much of an option regarding effective pain management. The drug’s effects seemed too good to be true. It was used to treat everything from headaches to muscle spasms to heavy

The FDA has taken action to help eliminate the abuse of opioid drugs. They consented to abuse deterrent labeling for a few opioid drugs. These drugs used many different technologies to resolve the abuse issue. Such as making the drugs immune to crushing or dissolving so it will prevent drug users from consuming more than prescribed at a time. The FDA is also supporting the growth of more abuse deterrent drugs, by helping different manufactures. In spite of the fact, these drugs can still be abused, but it’s a start to creating more abuse deterrent drugs with less risk of abuse. In addition, FDA exceeded the old treatment for patients who have overdosed

Opiates, otherwise known as prescription painkillers, have become an enormous problem in the United States. Addiction, overdoses, and death are only a few of the problems caused by opiates. Painkillers can be prescribed to help lessen chronic pain, pain from surgery, pain from serious accidents, or pain from terminal diseases. Opiates are highly addicting and have become highly abused in the United States in the past few years. Prescription painkillers need to be banned in the United States because of the dangers they bring to the patients to whom they are being prescribed. The FDA needs to become more involved in the awareness of how dangerous these drugs are and place a ban on them.

The “Fall of Rome” is a popular phase used by many critics in an attempt to explain how and when exactly the Roman Empire fell apart. Scholars however fail in providing an accurate and reasonable event for when the Roman Empire truly fell. Did Rome ever truly fall? The Roman Empire encountered many economic problems, faced a lot of political instability, and gained many new religions within its society. As time went on, it transformed and gained a new identity. However, the true Roman Empire, it’s ideas and virtues are still present in society today. With this in mind, the answer to the question becomes quite obvious, Rome never fell.

While these two drugs have had such a great impact on our world, there are many other drugs that were very important during World War Two. Sulfanilamide, for example, was carried by soldiers all the time. It was a white powder, sprinkled on wounds to prevent infection, and it still exists today! The mortality rate of wounds without Sulfanilamide was 75 per 100 people, however, with Sulfanilamide, the death rate plummeted to 11 per 100 people! Morphine was also greatly used during the war because of its strong painkilling properties. However, it was extremely addictive, it was even more addictive than Nicotine (one of the most addictive substances known to man)! It was originally made from poppy plants indigenous to Turkey and India, and it was administered through a syrette. A syrette is a small auto-injector with a tube attached similar to a tube of toothpaste, but much smaller. Morphine caused many people to faint if they were fatigued or severely wounded, proving the extreme strength of the drug.

We always say to ourselves, “Things will get better in the end.” There are those times where you cannot be optimistic any more. Everything has gone downhill, but that does not mean there is no recovery. Recovery happens often to us. If we fail at something there is always room for improvement. At this day and age anything is possible, we may get approached from anywhere at any time. Like I said it can happen anytime, even with one phone call when it is least expected.