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Chronicling America is a searchable digital collection of historic newspaper pages through 1963 sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress.
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Also, see the Directory of U.S. Newspapers in American Libraries, a searchable index to newspapers published in the United States since 1690, which helps researchers identify what titles exist for a specific place and time, and how to access them.
Drugs derived from opium are called opiates. In 1898, an English chemist discovered a process to produce heroin from opium, which became the most addictive of all opiates. By 1912 heroin addiction in the U.S. was spreading rapidly with tragic consequences. In 1914, Congress passed the Harrison Narcotic Drug Act, which attempted to control the consumption of “mind-altering” drugs by limiting distribution to small amounts that doctors prescribed. Read more about it!
The information in this guide focuses on primary source materials found in the digitized historic newspapers from the digital collection Chronicling America.
The timeline below highlights important dates related to this topic and a section of this guide provides some suggested search strategies for further research in the collection.
| December 13, 1912 | Connecticut institutes a state board in an attempt to combat the growing heroin addiction crisis. |
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| February 17, 1915 | Harrison Drug Act targets non-medical use of drugs. |
| May 28, 1916 | New York woman wins a key lawsuit against a drug firm after her son became addicted to heroin. |
| March 1, 1919 | New York "Narcotic Drug Law" goes into effect, requiring anyone who works with heroin to register as doing so. |
| April 1919 | The U.S. is reported to have the highest rates of drug abuse in the world. |
