Laudanum example, the wife of the US president Abraham Lincoln, was a laudanum addict, as was the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who was famously interrupted in the middle of an opium-induced writing session of "Kubla Khan" by a "person from Porlock". Initially a working class drug, laudanum was cheaper than a bottle of gin or wine, because it was treated as a medication for legal purposes and not taxed as an alcoholic beverage. Laudanum was used in home remedies and prescriptions, as well as a single medication. For example, a 1901 medical book published for home health use gave the
Drug their knowledge) arose later and invokes the psychoactive rather than medicinal properties of a substance. A "medication" or "medicine" is a drug taken to cure or ameliorate any symptoms of an illness or medical condition. The use may also be as preventive medicine that has future benefits but does not treat any existing or pre-existing diseases or symptoms. Dispensing of medication is often regulated by governments into three categories—"over-the-counter" medications, which are available in pharmacies and supermarkets without special restrictions; "behind-the-counter" medicines, which are dispensed by a pharmacist without needing a doctor's prescription, and "prescription only medicines", which must be