19th Century Sears catalog reprint, ads for cocaine, etc, editorially removed

by FatFreek 2005 3 Replies latest social current

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  FatFreek 2005

  As most know, 1906 was a year that drugs such as cocaine became somewhat controlled in the U.S. This from Wikipedia:

  The Pure Food and Drug Act required that certain specified drugs, including alcohol, cocaine, heroin, morphine, and cannabis, be accurately labeled with contents and dosage. Previously many drugs had been sold as patent medicines with secret ingredients or misleading labels. Cocaine, heroin, cannabis, and other such drugs continued to be legally available without prescription as long as they were labeled.

  A friend told me that Sears did the dastardly deed of altering their catalog reprints, omitting ads for such drugs in order to maintain their pristine company image. I can't believe any reputable publisher would descend to such a deceptive level as to attempt to rewrite their own history.

  Anyone out there with one of those catalogs that can confirm such currently controlled drugs for sale in catalogs like Sears or Monkey Wards?

  Len
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  Leolaia

  Well there's arsenic here:

  http://hubpages.com/hub/Sears-Roebuck-Catalog-1902-Edition

  And strychnine and cannabis here:

  http://antiquecannabisbook.com/Add-13a/Sears.htm

  And opium (laudanum) and cocaine (coca wine) here:

  http://teachertoys.weebly.com/1/post/2010/4/sex-drugs-and-the-sears-catalog.html
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  Invetigator74

  Interesting Len I just pulled out a old, original Sears catalog from 1908 and read the "Pure Food Law" which took effect Jan.1, 1907.
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  FatFreek 2005

  Hi Leolaia,

  Great research find. I can't tell you how long I'd looked. Thanks very much.

  Investigator -- That makes sense that a law enacted becomes effective on the first of the subsequent year. This, from Wiki:

  The Pure Food and Drug Act of June 30, 1906 is a United States federal law that provided federal inspection of meat products and forbade the manufacture, sale, or transportation of adulterated food products and poisonous patent medicines. [1]