In the modern day we see drug addicts ruined by their diseases, utterly unable to carry on day to day life. Often, whole communities are torn apart by such drugs and the organizations that traffic, produce, and sell them. Is this purely a modern phenomenon, related to the availability and low price of things like heroin, cocaine, and mass produced liquor, or have societies historically had similar problems?
In a word: Opium. Opium has been known for centuries upon centuries. Not only did the Chinese have it, but so did the Romans, the Greeks, and probably quite a few others. The [opium wars in the 19th century] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Opium_War) of course dealt with the drug in part.
Alcohol has been used and abused by every culture on Earth. This 10th Century Iraqi recipe for hangovers is a partial testament to that. The temperance movement was started in the early 19th century even though Prohibition wasn't enacted until the early 20th century.