What does that show? When conditions are hard people resort to drugs for relief. When conditions ease heavy drug use goes down to residual (PTSD incidence) levels.
And alcohol and opiates were both legal in America until the early 1900s. So drug use in America in the 1800s had nothing to do with legality. Alcohol was America’s choice ( there were some exceptions ) and opium was China’s choice.
yea the whiskey tax and Irish tax had nothing to do with that at all. All spiking together around 1820. Shutting down imports because of a 25 percent increase in taxes and 1200 distilleries in Ireland dropped to only 90 in that time frame. People just started to drink bootleg scotch and whisky causing the perceived drop in consumption by tax records. Not drug use...
I am not a nuclear physicist, but play one on the internet.
I was going to guess a major temperance movement or a shift in form of alcohol. I note that volume of booze doesn't tell you ethanol content, which has a massive difference beer vs. wine vs. whiskey. Taxes and consumption shifting to unmeasured forms is a better explanation for the sudden drop in measured figures.
The daylight is uncomfortably bright for eyes so long in the dark.
