Overview
By 1817, De Quincey was consuming more than 20,000 milligrams of morphine a day.
De Quincey’s book [[confessions-of-an-opium-eater|Confessions of an Opium Eater (1821)]] achieved a legendary status in Western societies as one of the most popular texts describing the influence of opium. In George Pettey’s The Narcotic Drug Diseases and Allied Ailments: Pathology, Pathogenesis, and Treatment (1913), the author critically acknowledges his influence as a turning point in opium consumption habits:
“Suffice it to say that the effects of the cruder forms of narcotic drugs were known to the ancients, and these were used from time to time for their pain-relieving and hypnotic effects; but, it is not believed that the habitual use of any of these agents existed to any considerable extent until after the discovery of morphine, the principal alkaloid of opium. The writings of DeQuincy during the early part of the last century doubtless did more to publish and to popularize the use of opium than any other, or possibly than all other influences had done up to that time. His exaggerated descriptions of the pleasurable effects of opium led many to experiment upon themselves with it, and often these experiments resulted in complete enslavement.”