Tell that to Sherlock Holmes or the millions of ordinary citizens who got hooked on hard drugs that were in over the counter medicines
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional person.
There are millions who were addicted to laudanum, and other drugs, but Sherlock was most definitely not one of them.
But Arthur Conan Doyle wasn't and he wrote about things he saw going on in his world, just like many modern authors. If I would have named Millie Jones or any other of the millions you mentioned you would have had no idea what I was talking about. Sherlock Holmes you recognized.