When this shady ad appeared in a 1905 periodical, heroin was being marketed as a cure for morphine addiction, among other medicinal purposes. Perhaps that was what came in the “trial bottle” in a plain brown wrapper? Unfortunately heroin proved to be more potent than morphine and probably created more addicts than it cured.
In 1914, heroin and morphine were made illegal without a prescription in the United States. That didn’t stop usage, of course. Opium derivatives were the most commonly abused drugs in New York City, according to the New York Narcotic Survey Committee of 1929.
Tags: heroin in New York City, Morphine addiction, opium dens
