These addicts weren’t seen as a menace to society, however. Instead, they were patients to be pitied, educated, protected from unscrupulous drug companies, and cared for by doctors. In fact, simply labeling opiate-containing medicines cut their use by between 25% and 50% in the years after the 1906 law passed, showing clearly that measures short of criminalization can affect the use of even the most addictive drugs and that education is a powerful part of prevention.
