If you study the history of narcotic use and other brain deadening substances by Americans you may be surprised at how easy it was for customers to buy products such as Laudanum (Tincture of Opium), Paregoric (Tincture of Heroin), and such in years past. Laudanum in particular was in general use in the 1700’s-1800’s and in America was kept on hand by pioneers. You could even buy it from your grocer. It was not until 1911 that these things went to a prescription only basis.

Pioneers had to deal with diarrhea. Cholera. diphtheria, smallpox and various other diseases killing their children. Flu epidemics, raging fevers, and an endless litany of horrific pain causing aliments. But Paregoric was plentiful and cheap and you could buy it and other opiates anywhere. Some farmers across the southland grew poppy and sold it to pharmacists who made Laudanum from it to sell over the counter.

Singers, preachers and teachers depended a lot on Dragees cough syrup in the 1800s. It was heavy on cocaine and may explain why preachers went on so long back in the old days. If your preacher still goes on too long, you may need to check his medicine chest. It’s maker, Mariani, was especially popular with some preachers, and it was made even more famous by Pope Leo XIII who was never without this “medicine.” The now infallible Pope Leo decorated drug maker Angelo Mariani with the Vatican Gold Medal.

Coco wine was also marketed in the USA, sold as a cough syrup but it would also make you happier... Many of America’s happiest generation drank to that. Between 1890 and 1910 Bayer sold its over-the-counter brand of “non-addictive” Heroin. People fed it to their kids for “strong cough.” Whatever that is. I had patients who would have developed “strong cough” for a snort.

A well-known oldtime Allen pharmacist told me that when he ran a pharmacy here back in the early ‘30s he sold Gin OTC. Otto Strickland said he bought the Gin (Jamica Gin) during prohibition by the barrel and plumed it into his soda fountain where he would charge a little extra to fix a drink (such as Coca-Cola + Gin) and Otto assured me that his customers on Main Street Allen were a happy lot. I’ll bet they were and there is no doubt that the popular Otto did sell lots of this happy mixture.

I sold a lot of Paregoric and many diarrhea controlling concoctions at my pharmacy, but you had to sign for this narcotic. Mother’s rubbed paregoric on babies’ gums for teething pain and people bought copious amounts of vanilla extract to get high. When I bought this pharmacy practice in Allen, I noticed that I was selling lots of Eskabarb (amphetamine) and Eskatrol (Phenobarbital) and I asked a faithful lady customer why. She said her doctor prescribed phenobarbital to help her sleep but after a few months on that she had trouble waking up in the mornings. “He then gave me Amphetamine capsules to help me get up and do all my work during my day.” “I needed both of them,” she said. None were restricted by law at that time. She told her friends and I sure did sell a lot of it.

You could buy alcoholic Vanilla extract in little two ounce bottles at the grocery or drug store. Grocer Bill Callaway told me that he had one customer who drank so much of the extract that his flatulence smelled like vanilla wafers. The vanilla flavoring sold extremely well. Parke-Davis’s rubbing alcohol was a little different. It was ethel alcohol, not isopropyl. And people did drink it. When I was at Bayless Drug in Ada, we sold several cases a month. In Allen, not so much. Some of my customers chased this alcohol down with tall bottles of RC Cola. I did note that most of these customers seemed to die at age 49. Just saying.

Now we have legalized Marijuana. Oh my! How smart was that? Now we are floating in it. We export much of it. Who knew what a mess we brewed when we voted to legalize marijuana?

Have a good week and be sure and go to church. You can leave your dope at home but bring your mate.

Wayne Bullard, DPh

cwaynebullard@gmail.com