Laudanum secretions ... to support the system ... [and] as a soporific". The limited pharmacopoeia of the day meant that opium derivatives were among the most effective of available treatments, so laudanum was widely prescribed for ailments from colds to meningitis to cardiac diseases, in both adults and children. Laudanum was used during the yellow fever epidemic. Innumerable Victorian women were prescribed the drug for relief of menstrual cramps and vague aches. Nurses also spoon-fed laudanum to infants. The Romantic and Victorian eras were marked by the widespread use of laudanum in Europe and the United States. Mary Todd Lincoln, for
Drug culture S. Thompson's "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" employs multiple drug use as a major theme and provides an example of the drug culture of the 1960s. Alcoholic beverages contain ethanol (simply called alcohol). Ethanol is a psychoactive drug primarily found in alcoholic beverages. Alcohol is one of the most commonly abused drugs in the world (Metropol, 1996) often used for self-medication, and as recreational drug use. Cannabis has been used in the ancient past in places such as ancient India, Romania, Egypt, and Mesopotamia. It was often used as medicine or for hemp, its main route of consumption was