Two decades after heroin's invention in 1874 by C. R. Alder Wright, a chemist (Felix Hoffman) of the German pharmaceutical company Bayer re-synthesized heroin while he was trying to produce codeine.
The company decided to market the drug as a morphine substitute and cough suppressant between 1898 and 1910. It turned out that heroin was highly addictive, and four times stronger than morphine. The number of addicts grew out of control, and Bayer ceased production of the "medicine" in 1913.
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Coca-Cola
Originally intended as a patent medicine when it was invented in 1886 by John Pemberton. He used five ounces of coca leaf (141.7 g) per gallon of syrup in the first five years, but the company was bought by businessman Asa Griggs Candler in 1891, who claimed his formula contained only 0.5 ounces. (14.2 g)
Over the next twelve years, Coca-Cola contained an estimated 9 milligrams of cocaine per glass. After 1904, the company started using leftovers of the cocaine-extraction process, instead of fresh leaves.
Ernest Shackleton took this stuff to Antarctica in 1909, as did Captain Scott in 1910, but it was used in World War I, too.
Indian and American Cannabis by Parke, Davis & Co.
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