Some ads from ‘back in the day’, pre 1900…
When morphine, cocaine, and other things were legal to put in various tinctures, tonics, and drinks… Including Coca Cola!
Yes, Coca Cola originally had cocaine in it in the 1890s…
This one apparently had both cocaine AND morphine in it. I’m ‘sure’ the kids were soothed…unconscious, but soothed…
And then in 1982, the Tylenol poisonings in Chicago took place, changing forever how hard it was to get a pill bottle open, among other things…
Wednesday, September 29, 1982 was a school day, but 12-year-old Mary Kellerman woke up with a runny nose and a headache. So her parents told her to stay home, take a couple of Tylenol and get some rest.
“I heard her go into the bathroom. I heard the door close. Then I heard something drop,” recalled Dennis Kellerman, Mary’s dad. “I went to the bathroom door. I called, ‘Mary, are you OK?’ There was no answer. I called again: ‘Mary, are you OK?’ There was still no answer. So I opened the bathroom door, and my little girl was on the floor unconscious. She was still in her pajamas.”
Mary was pronounced dead at the hospital from unknown causes.
Full article, HERE from the History Channel.
I remember being in Pensacola, going through the abbreviated ACOS curriculum when they required every student to go back to their billeting and physically bring any bottles of Tylenol to the base medical clinic and turn them in. THAT scared the hell out of all of us, and I think that’s one reason, even today, I tend to not take Tylenol…
Coca Cola = Coca leaf and Cola nut. It’s right there in the name.
They still use coca leaves, by the way. The cocaine is extracted in a plant outside Atlanta before the leaf extract is used in production of the flavoring syrup.
Most of the people have no idea what is in any of the OTC meds or prescription meds they take or what have in them. We all just believe that because the doctor wrote the perscription or the FDA approved the OTC meds that they are safe. We actually are gambling they are without knowing. However in most cases thet are safe unless it the Covid-19 jab.
The Rolling Stones had a song about that, “Mama’s little helper”
Is that why we all switched to Motrin?
I was in high school when this went down and it did have everyone freaked out.
It was as bad as going to the beach after “Jaws” came out….
One of my favorite 19th century patents for “child resistant” medicine containers:
https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/a5/43/ac/7d0309d15c9666/US110760.pdf
“My invention consists of an elastic band, and protuberant points or spikes, which can be fitted to and adjusted on bottles, jars, &c., of different sizes, and containing poison, in such a position that no one can obtain the contents of the bottle, &c., without previous warning, by the spikes punching the hand, of the dangerous character. of the contents.”
The inventor in his day simply asserts that the difference between adults and children will be that a measure of adulthood is to possess the fortitude to “grasp the nettle” while children do not. It will hurt a bit to open the bottle, but “real” adults can stand the gaff and “tough it out” as the price for access to the medicine.
I was in college when the Tylenol thing happened, and it was theorized that that guy was a copy cat of a Tropicana employee who tainted batches of orange juice before he was caught. Even then, we had lot traceability and in both cases suspect product was identified and isolated in a matter of days or within a week or so.
https://www.fda.gov/files/about%20fda/published/The-Sulfanilamide-Disaster.pdf
Not so when Dr. Massengill (*that* Massengill, btw) attempted to mix sulfanil amide into a sweet liquid for kids with colds – the sweet syrup he selected was ethylene glycol. No serialized batches or containers. When people started dying, the fledgling FDA in 1937 had men taking trains all over the country interviewing people to track down where every last one of those bottles ended up – and finding that people consumed half, and swapped them to friends, bartered with the radio repair guy, etc…
Great retelling of the event in this book:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Demon_Under_the_Microscope
Regarding Tylenol, it’s also very easy to overdose on and once you OD on it, you… die, painfully. You can easily skate close to OD and it will be a painful and long recovery, but the tipping point is… death.
Ibuprophen (Motrin, Advil, etc) is very less easy to overdose, and basically keeps Special Forces and most martial artists moving. You can overdose it and kill your liver and kidneys, but it’s much much harder to do and the way to recover from a near lethal dose is quit taking the stuff and you’ll recover pretty quickly.
Though Ibuprophen and Acetaminophen (1200mg and 500mg) every 4-6 hours is a pretty good pain cocktail for those who can’t take opiates.
As long as you don’t exceed 3600mg for Ibuprophen and 2000mg for Acetaminophen, that is…
All- Thanks and good points. Beans, also known as Ranger Candy… sigh
A sister worked for a research physician in the 70’s, and he warned her that he was seeing liver damage from acetaminophen taken at recommended dosage levels, and that she should avoid the drug. He was working with a lot of VetAffairs patients, and he thought their service history might have been a factor in the damage that was occurring, but he thought it would be prudent to limit the use of it.
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/cyanide-laced-tylenol-kills-seven
I am surprised that they still prescribe acetaminophen, given the dangers, But hey! Take the Pfizer jab! Get two, they’re free!
Take the Pfizer jab! Get two, they’re free!
Looks like a new take on the “buy now, pay later” plan!
Yep.