In the early 60's there was a rage among high school kids that included drinking cough syrup laced with dihydrocodeine.
A great many of my friends started using it (myself included)because it gave one a similar high to morphine, just slightly milder.
At that time you could walk into any drugstore w/o a prescription and buy as much as you wanted-I even had a druggist in lower Manhattan who sold it to me by the pint ($5) (it normally sold in 4oz bottles)
Eventually, it took us such a ridiculous amount to get high that almost everyone switched over to heroin. I've lost count how many of my former friends died from heroin ODs but it was a lot. My abusing cough syrup in high school eventually led to a long drug habit but I still consider myself lucky just being alive and able to see how little humans have changed regarding their "newest" fad.
I remember reading about Janis Joplin at a party with a bottle of Southern Comfort. Only it wasn’t liquor, the bottle was filled with codeine cough syrup.