Opium addiction became so widespread and so perverse that in 1875 San Francisco city officials passed the Opium Den Ordinance, prohibiting public smoking of opium. Other cities followed. Then, the United States government stepped in. In 1909, Congress passed the Opium Exclusion Act, banning importation. But it was too late. Many Americans were already addicted to the drug. And, as reflected by a new American lexicon, people addicted to opium were no longer sympathetic figures. They were called junkies, because they often sifted through junkyards to find salable items.
