Dr. Lynn Price Robbins and Isaac S. Loftus sit down with historian Dr. Jonathan S. Jones to uncover the hidden history of opium use during the American Civil War. Hailed as a miracle cure for battlefield pain, opium left countless veterans battling lifelong addiction—an often-overlooked consequence of war that shaped lives long after the fighting ended.

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CHAPTERS:

0:00 - Introductions

1:12 - How did you choose your topic?

3:25 - The journey to discovering opium’s role

4:39 - The difference between opium and morphine

6:40 - Pre-modern medicine ear

8:25 - Opium's prevalence in the U.S. civil war medicine

10:47 - Addiction awareness in the 19th century

13:52 - Changing the perception of addiction

17:55 - Civil War Veterans and opium use

21:02 - Access to opium: The unregulated market

22:46 - Supply and Demand: Opium During the Civil War

27:00 - Medical Advancements and the Hypodermic Syringe

32:44 - International Influence on Civil War Medicine

34:19 - The Emergence of Addiction Post-Civil War

37:57 - How was Morphine Prescribed

39:54 - Responses to Addiction: A Historical Perspective

47:07 - Shifts in Perception and Treatment of Addiction

54:43 - Racial and Gender Disparities in Addiction Treatment

58:18 - The Legacy of Addiction: Lessons from History and Where to Visit

1:00:57 - Where to find Jonathon and his book

EPISODE LINKS:

Dr. Jonathan S. Jones - https://jonathansjones.net

James Madison University - https://www.jmu.edu/history/people/all-people/jones-jonathan.shtml

Opium Slavery: The Civil War, Veterans, and America’s First Opioid Crisis - https://uncpress.org/9781469689531/opium-slavery/

Opium – https://museum.dea.gov/exhibits/online-exhibits/cannabis-coca-and-poppy-natures-addictive-plants/opium-poppy

Opiate v. Opioid - https://www.oregon.gov/adpc/pages/opiate-opioid.aspx

Germ Theory - https://www.civilwarmed.org/germ-theory-antebellum/

Civil War Field Hospitals - https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/everyday-life-civil-war-hospital

Crimean War - https://www.britannica.com/event/Crimean-War

Ambrose Bierce - https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ambrose-Bierce

Harrison Narcotics Tax Act - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK234755/#:~:text=The%20measure%20that%20finally%20passed,to%20pay%20a%20small%20tax.

National Museum of Civil War Medicine – https://www.civilwarmed.org

American Civil War Museum - https://acwm.org

BlueSky – https://bsky.app/profile/jonathansjones.bsky.social

Email - [email protected]

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