The good old days

Have you ever wondered why our great grandparents all had such fond memories of their youth?

Well.. I’m surprised they remembered anything at all !!!
Forget Tums & Tylenol.
Forget Aleve & Benedryl.
Look at the stuff they had back then!

A bottle of Bayer’s ‘Heroin’.
Between 1890 and 1910 heroin was sold as a non-addictive substitute for morphine.
It was also used to treat children suffering with a strong cough.

Coca Wine, anyone?

Metcalf’s Coca Wine was one of a huge variety of wines with cocaine on the market.

Everybody used to say that it would make you happy and it would also work as a medicinal treatment.

Mariani wine (1875) was the most famous Coca wine of it’s time.

Pope Leo XIII used to carry one bottle with him all the time.

He awarded Angelo Mariani (the producer) with a Vatican gold medal.

Produced by the Maltine Manufacturing Company of New York .

It was suggested that you should take a full glass with or after every meal.

Children should only take half a glass.

A paperweight:

A paperweight promoting C.F. Boehringer & Soehne ( Mannheim , Germany ).

They were proud of being the biggest producers in the world of products

containing Quinine and Cocaine.

Opium for Asthma:

At 40% alcohol plus 3 grams of opium per tablet.

It didn’t cure you… But you didn’t care!

Cocaine Tablets (1900).

All stage actors, singers, teachers and preachers had to have them for a maximum performance.

Great to ‘smooth’ the voice.

Cocaine drops for toothache.

Very popular for children in 1885.

Not only did they relieve the pain, they made the children very happy!

Opium for newborns.

Would make them sleep well.

(not only the Opium, but also the 46% alcohol)

It’s no wonder they were called, “The Good Old Days”.
From cradle to grave… everyone was STONED !!!

Hi Jock,

Thats true, if you read what they drank in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic era you would realise that the success was entirely grog driven. Its a wonder they could see to sail in any direction.

Jim

I read those in Bert Christensen's
Truth & Humour Collection

Yes. I can see merit both ways as to whether the "war on drugs" should be stopped. But I sometimes wonder whether either side in the debate realizes that drugs like cocaine and opium USED TO BE legal.

There's a reason why they were made illegal.

Jim