There was a local doctor back in the 60’s through the 80’s that bought moonshine from local moonshiners to make cough medicine. Everybody wanted his cough medicine because it worked better than the “store bought” stuff.
My great grandmother, from North Carolina, was the local "medicine" woman. She used moonshine for a lot of her remedies, cough syrup, spring tonics, etc. A cousin would bring her a monthly supply of moonshine from his stock. The cousin and his two brothers were some of the biggest moonshiners in the state, at the time. One of them died in a car accident being chased by law enforcement (1929) and another was killed in a shootout (1930).
There was a lot of moonshine being made during the depression. My grandmother’s brother went to Brushy Mtn. State prison for making moonshine. He didn’t stay long but when he got out he started growing cane instead of corn and made molasses instead of shine. He was making it when I was a kid. My favorite thing was to help with the molasses. He used a mule and a cane mill. I didn’t help much but I did like to sit on a log with my cup and wait for the hot molasses to come out. :-) My great-aunt always had a big pan of hot buttermilk biscuits to go with it once it started coming out of the mill.
It’s a sad shame kids of today don’t experience things that they will remember their entire lives. I get my molasses from our local Mennonite community now.