One of the reasons why libertarians are so hepped up on drug-law repeal is because there were no drug laws when laissez-faire ran high. None.
Regarding opiates, Paul Johnson noted in Birth of the Modern that the typical clientele for liquid opium were middle-class women of a certain age. Incredible as it sounds now, there may have been Woman's Christian Temperence Movement meeting where the party favor was lanaudum.
Bizarre, I know, but it shows how profoundly times have changed. To make the scene even more bizarre, such women would not have been hypcrites by the lights of the time. No social ills accompanied opium use back then, unlike alcohol back then.
Merry Speculative History Day.