Boy, I must really be getting old... I remember when Paregoric was sold openly off the shelf at every pharmacy. Preferred treatment for dysentery, bad coughs and even a drop on the finger and rubbed on a teething babies gums soothed them.
Of course we all knew better than to abuse it so we wouldn’t be like those Chinese coolies and their opium dens. Maybe people were just more responsible then and didn’t need the government to think for us.
Yes, we also used paregoric and none were addicted to it that I know of.