Editing Harrison Narcotics Tax Act (section)

====Opium====
In the 1800s [[opiate]]s were mostly unregulated drugs. Morphine addiction had spread rapidly during and after the Civil war. The consumption of household remedies and marketed syrups containing morphine was commonplace and mostly associated with the upper and middle class of society.{{sfn|Duster|1970|p=9}} Many women who were prescribed and dispensed legal opiates by physicians and pharmacist for "female problems" (probably pain at menstruation) became addicted.<ref name="kand">{{cite web|url=http://www.nida.nih.gov/PDF/DARHW/033-052_Kandall.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010612144609/http://www.nida.nih.gov/PDF/DARHW/033-052_Kandall.pdf|archive-date=2001-06-12|author=Stephen R. Kandall|title=Women and Addiction in the United States—1850 to 1920}}</ref> It's likely many who became addicted initially did not know what the syrups and concoctions contained.{{sfn|Duster|1970|p=6-7}}{{sfn|Courtwright|1992|p=2}} 

Although morphine syrups were easily available, opium smoking was already banned by many municipalities.{{sfn|Courtwright|1992|p=2}} There was more hostility to opium smoking than [[laudanum]] and other widely available tonics because of anti-Chinese sentiments and accusations that proprietors lured young white girls to opium dens.{{sfn|Gray|2023|p=148}} Chinese immigrants were blamed for importing the opium-smoking habit to the U.S. The 1903 blue-ribbon citizens' panel, the Committee on the Acquirement of the Drug Habit, concluded: "If the [[Chinaman]] cannot get along without his dope we can get along without him."<ref name=aclu>{{cite web |title=Caught in the Net: The Impact of Drug Policies on Women and Families |website=ACLU |url=https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/images/asset_upload_file431_23513.pdf}}</ref>

Heroin use became widespread among low-income immigrants in the early 20th century.{{sfn|Courtwright|1992|p=5}} In the 1890s, the [[Sears & Roebuck]] catalogue started offering a syringe and a small amount of cocaine or heroin for $1.50.<ref name="Johnston 2013">{{cite web|last=Johnston|first=Ann Dowsett|title='Drink' and 'Her Best-Kept Secret'|website=[[The New York Times]]|date=15 November 2013|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/17/books/review/drink-and-her-best-kept-secret.html|access-date=9 August 2023|quote=In 1897, the Sears, Roebuck catalog offered a kit with a syringe, two needles, two vials of heroin and a handy carrying case for $1.50.}}</ref><ref name="The Atlantic 2019">{{cite web|title=Sears Once Sold Heroin|website=[[The Atlantic]]|date=30 January 2019|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/03/sears-roebuck-bayer-heroin/580441/|access-date=9 August 2023|quote=For $1.50, Americans around the turn of the century could place an order through a Sears, Roebuck catalog and receive a syringe, two needles, and two vials of Bayer Heroin, all in a handsome carrying case.}}</ref>