Cough syrup produced in Baltimore in 1888 contained the following ingredients: alcohol, cannabis, chloroform, and morphine. Less than a decade later, Bayer would successfully synthesize both aspirin and heroin. Heroin was based on the German word “heroisch,” which means “heroic.” Bayer marketed heroin as a cough suppressant that was not as addictive as morphine.

If you were to open the 11th edition of Encyclopedia Britannica from 1910 and look up “morphine,” you’ll find the following passage: “In the cough of phthisis, minute doses [of morphine] are of service, but in this particular disease morphine is frequently better replaced by codeine or by heroin, which checks irritable coughs without the narcotism following upon the administration of morphine.”

In 1924, the US Congress banned the selling, manufacturing, and importing of heroin as it soon became clear that the drug had the highest rate of addiction. Bayer lost its trademark rights to heroin and aspirin in 1919, following the defeat of Germany in World War 1.