On the one hand, I find people who can find no explanation for fun-having and silliness other than "they must have been on drugs" to be tiresomely unimaginative. On the other hand, the majority of these headlines WERE printed during an age when your standard over-the-counter cold medication was opium and cannabis in alcohol
Asked by Anonymous
Very true, in 1906 the pure food and drug act said that opium, heroin, morphine, cocaine, alcohol and cannabis had to be listed in ingredients lists - but they weren’t banned outright in over the counter medicines for another 30 years!
For what it’s worth though, the St Louis Post-Dispatch had a pretty hard-line stance on patent medicines. Joseph Pulitzer II wouldn’t allow them to advertise in the paper (which lost them quite a bit of money, but he remained firm).