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 Houses of Australia Drug Houses of Australia Drug Houses of Australia (DHA) was originally established in 1936 as an amalgamation of seven Australian pharmaceutical companies, notably A. M. Bickford & Sons. In 1970, DHA was taken over by the British bank Slater Walker. Drug Houses of Australia is now a leading generic pharmaceutics and Chinese proprietary medicine (CPM) manufacturer based in Jurong, Singapore. It was sold to Strides Arcolab through a share purchase agreement with Haw Par Healthcare Limited, Singapore in September 2006 for approximately SGD$19.7 million. It is currently a part of Strides Arcolab which is listed on both the Indian stock