During the first part of the nineteenth century, the amount of opiates used in the United States may have been comparable to that used in Britain, where some areas, notably the fen counties, had a fairly large per capita consumption.

Inhabitants there often took a dose of laudanum or some form of opium daily to keep away the fevers associated with the marshlands. More generally, parents reputedly purchased one or another form of opium to rub on the gums of teething infants or to spoon-feed a child to induce sleep so that the mother without provision for child care could work in the local factory.