Opium tea, anyone?

Just finished a good, though ultimately depressing, book about Chang and Eng -- the conjoined twins from Siam who became so famous that people now say Siamese twins when babies are born conjoined. It was fascinating, not least because the brothers could be so different at times. But one of the most darkly humorous parts of the book had nothing to do with the main theme: a description of an all-female Southern temperance group listening to a speech about the evils of drinking alcohol while drinking opium tea. The humor was so deadpan that the scene was completely convincing. And sure enough, some googling and reading shows that opium tea was indeed a common thing in the South around the time of the Civil war:

During the Civil War, gardeners in the South were encouraged to plant opium for the war effort, in order to ensure a supply of painkillers for the Confederate Army.

It's worth noting that during the period of anti-alcohol hysteria that led to Prohibition, certain forms of opium were as legal and almost as widely available in this country as alcohol is today. It is said that members of the Women's Christian Temperance Union would relax at the end of a day spent crusading against alcohol with their cherished "women's tonics," preparations whose active ingredient was laudanum--opium. Such was the order of things less than a century ago.

Both quotes are from this interesting article in Harper's. I read pretty much to the end before realizing it was by the author of The Botany of Desire, which was high on my Christmas-giving list a few years ago. It really is fascinating and weird how differently society can treat different ingestable substances... I used to draw a distinct line between some substances and others, but those days ended when I started learning more about nutrition and decided pretty much everything is a drug. Especially sugar.