Your medicine cabinet used to hold heroin next to aspirin. π . . . In 1898, Bayer launched two drugs the same year β aspirin, and 'Heroin.' The heroin tablets were marketed as a non-addictive cough syrup safe for children and sold over the counter for 12 years. Bayer even trademarked the name. By 1913, hospitals were treating the first wave of what a Bayer chemist had called 'heroisch' β heroic.
Source
Scientific American, 2011, 'Heroin, Aspirin and the Birth of Bayer' β also documented in Bayer's own archived corporate history
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