“By around 1850, the annual consumption of opium averaged 5g per person. It was even spooned into the mouths of infants to relieve teething troubles. The result was that many people became addicted, including the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Abraham Lincoln’s wife, Mary, and even Queen Victoria herself.”

“By around 1850, the annual consumption of opium averaged 5g per person. It was even spooned into the mouths of infants to relieve teething troubles. The result was that many people became addicted, including the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Abraham Lincoln’s wife, Mary, and even Queen Victoria herself.”

— Kathryn Harkup