Medicine Chest: Medicines to Cure Addiction

By John Panella and Joe Widman

MEDICINES TO CURE ADDICTION

A common theme in many medicine bottle articles over the years has been that they contained alcohol and drugs that could cause addiction. Addiction has been a serious problem forever. It still is today and will undoubtedly continue to be. Every day the news is bombarded with stories of addiction and death caused by chemicals that have been used in medicine for years.

In the 19th century there was a concern that medicines could cause drunkenness and addiction. There weren’t any heavily advertised or well-known drugs to treat addiction. I do remember that Sear’s once had a medicine to treat drunkenness. It contained opium.

The most common embossed medicine for drunkenness was the Keeley Cure for Drunkenness. Keeley also had cures for tobacco and opium habits. Many of you have probably heard of these. They are all very collectible. The drunkenness cure is the only one that you can fairly easily find. The next most available one is the Collin’s Opium Habit Cure.

The rest of these are extremely rare, some may be one of a kind.

• Unger’s Cinchona Rubra Cure for Drunkenness

• Morrell Liquor Cure

• The Keeley Cure (for) Drunkenness

• The Keeley Treatment (for) Inebriety

• The Garten Ter-Chloride of Gold Treatment for the Liquor, Tobacco and Opium Habits

By John Panella and Joe Widman

PHOTOS (previous page):

Unger’s Cinchona Rubra Cure for Drunkenness Morrell Liquor Cure

PHOTOS (this page):

The Keeley Cure (for) Drunkenness The Keeley Treatment (for) Inebriety The Garten Ter-Chloride of Gold Treatment for the Liquor, Tobacco and Opium Habits

By John Panella and Joe Widman

• The Mexico MO Institute / Cures the Whiskey, Morphine & Tobacco Habits (top left)

• Yarnall’s Gold Cure for Alcoholism (top right)

• Grant Goldcura for Liquor and Drug Habits (left)

The last bottle is mine. The rest are owned, or were owned, by my friend Dann Louis of Michigan. If you have other bottles similar to these please let me, or the magazine, know. We would appreciate hearing from you!

Joe Widman (269) 329-0524 oldmedicines@yahoo.com