Daily Mail- Curing with cocaine: The bizarre Victorian drug-laden 'remedies' for...

[edgarshade]

Curing with cocaine: The bizarre Victorian drug-laden 'remedies' for coughs, cancer and liver disease

By Kerry Mcqueeney
PUBLISHED: 13:25, 4 September 2012

With reader comments

It's not a drug known for its benefits to health. In fact, if you were caught with this class A substance and claimed it was for 'medicinal purposes' you'd probably be laughed at all the way to the police station.

But, bizarrely, cocaine - and other drugs like morphine - were routinely used in remedies for coughs, colds and toothaches as a cure-all magic ingredient in the Victorian era.

Long before the drugs were criminalised - and prior to the regulation of both medicine and advertising - the substances were frequently touted as effective treatments for illnesses as serious as cancer and liver disease.

More...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-remedies-laden-cocaine-morphine-alcohol.html

 

[Thorns Have Roses]

But, bizarrely, cocaine - and other drugs like morphine - were routinely used in remedies for coughs, colds and toothaches as a cure-all magic ingredient in the Victorian era.

Using an effective antitussive to treat coughs and a local anesthetic for toothaches....what a foolish, barbaric practice!

 

[spacejunk]

bizarre? yeah, let's rewrite history with the 'war on drugs' lunatic mentality stamped all over it.
i bet they used opium for pain and upset stomachs, too. barbarians! well, we know better now, right?

it seems like the prohibition propaganda machine is really scraping the bottom of the barrel these days. you gotta feel for those swine, having to mount such floored arguments all the time.