I just got to an interesting part of the book, where the south is so desperate to win they promised slaves their freedom if they would fight for the south. That is how desperate they become. They undermined their entire reason for fighting to get one win. And they didn't get it. It was far too late. But I am sure you know the rest.
Edit: word
My library had its first book sale in forever today. I made out like a bandit: Ron Chernow's Grant and Madeline Miller's Circe in hardback and Zen Cho's Sorcerer to the Crown and Becky Chambers's The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet in paperback. Not bad for $12.
It's interesting to talk about the Civil War as the US's first opioid epidemic considering opioids were used exceedingly sparingly during this time, to the point that when Ulysses S Grant was dying of throat cancer twenty years after they still didn't provide him with opioids to soothe his pain. I am pretty anti-opiate but I think his situation, being endstage throat cancer, would qualify as a responsible time to administer them. Of course they were abused by some during that time, they always will be, but it was hardly an epidemic. (You should give hisbiography a read sometime. It's not about the topic at hand but it is a great read.)
The prohibition movement had quite the opposite of its intended effect. It led to the rise of mob bosses like Al Capone and it had a booming black-market comparable in revenue to the corresponding legal market, though without being taxed. One would have to be willfully oblivious if they couldn't locate the nearest speakeasy - of which there were many. Alcohol use dropped a bit during prohibition but to call it a success would be fudging the truth considering it also aided in the rise of organized crime, much like current prohibition efforts that are in effect today.
> campaign for greater sobriety and drug control in America, which has been supported by thousands of health professionals, educators, community leaders and law enforcement officials.
It should be clear why health professionals are in favor of sobriety. It is objectively healthier and nobody should even try and argue with that. What should be questioned is why we are taking into account what law enforcement officials have to say on the matter at all. They enforce the laws and so they should not be allowed to write them. The political system is complicated and I don't want to write a thesis on this, but essentially, if law enforcement is also allowed to dictate the laws then we would stray even farther from democracy than we already have. If they have the power to enforce the law then they must not also be the one writing the law or moral code. Too much consolidation of power leads to abuse of a different nature and only a small minority of powerful people end up benefitting.
>... health professionals, educators, community leaders and law enforcement officials.
This is the point I am trying to get at. People are agreeing with what educators have to say, and largely we agree that if people were better educated we would have a much better handle on the current disaster that is widespread substance abuse today, but we are not funding them and the education system in the US is outstandingly bad compared to other first world countries. People who are educated on the dangers of substance abuse stand a much better chance against it than people who have no idea how dangerous it really is. D.A.R.E. really wasn't enough. A real education doesn't just mean learning about the psychology behind addiction, that's too abstract and carries with it very little real value. A successful education system would give people the ability to think critically about their ambitions and teach them how to set out on the path to making their ambitions a reality.
Basically, I think that, along with most of the glaring issues in our current world, the substance abuse epidemic should be treated as an education crisis just as much as a health crisis. Making life harder on people who are already in the throes of addiction, by way of the justice system, only serves to punish them further and doesn't rehabilitate or help anyone.
The currently popular Grant biography is good.