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. Or hop heads, from the Cantonese phrase ha peen, meaning “bird or cow manure.”
