In 1859, Dr. Pablo Mantegazzo isolated cocaine from the coca leaf, and wrote about its wonderful powers to combat fatigue, depression, and impotence.  A few decades later, a Viennese physician by the name of Sigmund Freud sang its praises as an anesthetic and a restorative.  With these and many other supporters, cocaine became quite popular.  It even became a part of the formula for a popular tonic in the US known as Coca-Cola.  Until 1903, "coke" contained 60 milligrams of cocaine per 8 ounce serving!  After causing a number of deaths by overdose, it was outlawed in 1914.

A more serious issue in the 1800s was opium.  In 1820, the Chinese, in an effort to stop the spread of opium addiction, prohibited the importation of opium.  The British -- who seem to play the part of the culprit in many of these situations -- actually declared war on China in order to protect their precious opium trade.  They ended up with their market intact and a piece of China called Hong Kong.

The use of opium was recommended by the medical profession in Europe and America, and few challenged them.  The problem was exacerbated by a number of novelties: Friedrick Serturner’s discovery of morphine, an opium derivative, in 1803;  the practice of smoking opium rather than drinking or eating it; and by the invention of the hypodermic in 1853.

Opium and its derivatives began to receive some well-deserved negative attention when the British author De Quincey wrote his best selling Confessions of an English Opium Eater in 1822.  By this time, opium was available in the form of hundreds of different non-prescription medicines, and was quite popular among both upper and working classes.

In 1874, heroin was synthesized from opium, and was touted as a less dangerous form than opium or morphine.  The name, in fact, refers to its supposed potential as the hero of medicines.  In 1896, the Bayer company began marketing heroin.

Several other drugs became available to the European and American public in the 1800s.  For one, laborers from India brought cannabis to Jamaica in the form of ganja.  The Indian Hemp Drugs Commission put its stamp of approval on cannabis, saying its use is accompanied by practically no negative consequences, and the drug spread among the Jamaican lower class.  It was available in the US and Europe, but it would not become popular until the next century.

Amphetamines, the first major synthetic drug, was discovered in 1887.  Its use as a stimulant quickly became widespread.  It was used in World War II to help energize soldiers and industrial workers alike.

Earlier in the 1700s, ether was discovered.  When its effectiveness as an anesthetic became known in the 1840s, inhaling it or mixing a few drops in water became popular among upper class youth in the US and Europe.  It would later spread to the poor of Ireland and other countries as a cheap alternative to alcohol.

And last, but not least, Claude Bernard began in 1856 to experiment with a poison from the Amazon jungles of South America called curare.