"David T. Courtwright offers an interpretation of a puzzling chapter in American social and medical history: the dramatic change in the pattern of opiate addiction from respectable upper-class matrons to lower-class urban males, often with a delinquent or criminal record. Challenging the prevailing view that the shift resulted simply from harsh new laws, Courtwright shows that the crucial role was played by the medical rather than the legal profession.

Dark Paradise tells the story not only from the standpoint of legal and medical sources, but also from the perspective of addicts themselves."--BOOK JACKET.