The Museum of Drugs
@museumofdrugs.bsky.social
www.museumofdrugs.com
The Museum of Drugs is a Registered Charity (1181946). Our collection of antiques tells the story of human relations with psychoactive substances; from evolution to discrimination, criminalisation and warfare in modern times.
The Museum of Drugs is a Registered Charity (1181946). Our collection of antiques tells the story of human relations with psychoactive substances; from evolution to discrimination, criminalisation and warfare in modern times.
Fancy a drop of Vin Mariani, wine fortified with coca? Well you wouldn’t have been the only one. It’s inventor, Angelo Mariani seized the opportunity to get his product endorsed by many a ‘celebrity’ including Emile Zola, Henry Irving and even the Pope. The ethanol in the wine extracted the cocaine.
August 26, 2025 at 2:59 PM
Fancy a drop of Vin Mariani, wine fortified with coca? Well you wouldn’t have been the only one. It’s inventor, Angelo Mariani seized the opportunity to get his product endorsed by many a ‘celebrity’ including Emile Zola, Henry Irving and even the Pope. The ethanol in the wine extracted the cocaine.
Likely recreated in the imaginings of the studio than in any ‘opium den’ but nonetheless enticing to the traveller wishing to send a taste of the ‘exotic’ back home. Such postcards carried an enduring legacy in western minds and fuelled intolerance. Prohibition doesn’t exist without discrimination.
August 4, 2025 at 8:23 PM
Likely recreated in the imaginings of the studio than in any ‘opium den’ but nonetheless enticing to the traveller wishing to send a taste of the ‘exotic’ back home. Such postcards carried an enduring legacy in western minds and fuelled intolerance. Prohibition doesn’t exist without discrimination.
Content Warning: Emily Murphy, 14 March 1868 – 26 October 1933,
"It is hardly credible that the average Chinese peddler has any definite idea in his mind of bringing about the downfall of the white race, his swaying motive being probably that of greed”
The Black Candle
"It is hardly credible that the average Chinese peddler has any definite idea in his mind of bringing about the downfall of the white race, his swaying motive being probably that of greed”
The Black Candle
June 5, 2025 at 8:38 PM
Content Warning: Emily Murphy, 14 March 1868 – 26 October 1933,
"It is hardly credible that the average Chinese peddler has any definite idea in his mind of bringing about the downfall of the white race, his swaying motive being probably that of greed”
The Black Candle
"It is hardly credible that the average Chinese peddler has any definite idea in his mind of bringing about the downfall of the white race, his swaying motive being probably that of greed”
The Black Candle
Real or imagined, images of opium dens appeared in Western publications in the mid to late 19th Century, tantalising readers with opulence and decadence in equal measure. Un Vice Nouveau ignored the fact opium in China had increased significantly as a result of British intervention.
May 23, 2025 at 10:35 AM
Real or imagined, images of opium dens appeared in Western publications in the mid to late 19th Century, tantalising readers with opulence and decadence in equal measure. Un Vice Nouveau ignored the fact opium in China had increased significantly as a result of British intervention.
The trial of Brilliant Chang who was previously connected in the media with the death of Freda Kempton in 1922, who took her own life in a cocaine overdose. A slew of racist reporting in the media vilified Chinese migrant workers in major cities across England.
March 23, 2025 at 5:50 PM
The trial of Brilliant Chang who was previously connected in the media with the death of Freda Kempton in 1922, who took her own life in a cocaine overdose. A slew of racist reporting in the media vilified Chinese migrant workers in major cities across England.
Museum trip to Pere Lachaise to visit the grave of Jim Morrison #theDoors #jimmorrison taking in Oscar Wilde and Chopin along the way
March 2, 2025 at 4:40 PM
Museum trip to Pere Lachaise to visit the grave of Jim Morrison #theDoors #jimmorrison taking in Oscar Wilde and Chopin along the way
Content Warning: Drugs legislation and enforcement is racist by design. Our collection includes a signed dedication by Harry Anslinger (1892-1975 of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and committed racist: www.linkedin.com/feed/update/... @amnesty.org @ukleap.bsky.social @transformdrugs.bsky.social
Ben Curran on LinkedIn: CONTENT WARNING
You cannot understand drugs legislation and enforcement…
CONTENT WARNING
You cannot understand drugs legislation and enforcement without considering it through the lens of critical race theory. What does that even…
www.linkedin.com
January 11, 2025 at 11:55 AM
Content Warning: Drugs legislation and enforcement is racist by design. Our collection includes a signed dedication by Harry Anslinger (1892-1975 of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and committed racist: www.linkedin.com/feed/update/... @amnesty.org @ukleap.bsky.social @transformdrugs.bsky.social
Framed opium pipe. Opium use in China increased alarmingly in the early 19thC due to smuggling by the East India Company, Jardine Matheson Company, Peninsular & Oriental (P&O), and Dent & Co, in a bid to open China up to trade with the west. Cynical precursor to disaster capitalism #opium #China
January 4, 2025 at 11:04 AM
Lin Zexu (30 August 1785 – 22 November 1850), courtesy name Yuanfu, was a Chinese political philosopher, politician, poet and environmentalist, known in Europe for his role in attempting to negotiate an end to the British opium trade. Britain went to war, ignoring diplomatic efforts.
December 17, 2024 at 6:58 AM
Lin Zexu (30 August 1785 – 22 November 1850), courtesy name Yuanfu, was a Chinese political philosopher, politician, poet and environmentalist, known in Europe for his role in attempting to negotiate an end to the British opium trade. Britain went to war, ignoring diplomatic efforts.
When things are not as really bad as they seem… give Adipex Methamphetamine (1966)
Channel 4 News states Captagon supply across the region was worth 10 billion annually to Assad regime. Amphetamines were not always criminalised: as profitable to violent regimes @channel4news.bsky.social
Channel 4 News states Captagon supply across the region was worth 10 billion annually to Assad regime. Amphetamines were not always criminalised: as profitable to violent regimes @channel4news.bsky.social
December 13, 2024 at 8:10 AM
When things are not as really bad as they seem… give Adipex Methamphetamine (1966)
Channel 4 News states Captagon supply across the region was worth 10 billion annually to Assad regime. Amphetamines were not always criminalised: as profitable to violent regimes @channel4news.bsky.social
Channel 4 News states Captagon supply across the region was worth 10 billion annually to Assad regime. Amphetamines were not always criminalised: as profitable to violent regimes @channel4news.bsky.social
Who’s heard of Humbead’s Revised Map of the World? Created in the late 1960s it was a reimagining of the world map based on the places, artists, actors, musicians, philosophers and poets who were most important to the hippies. Included were psychedelic proponents Leary, Shulgin, and Hoffman.
December 4, 2024 at 5:58 AM
Who’s heard of Humbead’s Revised Map of the World? Created in the late 1960s it was a reimagining of the world map based on the places, artists, actors, musicians, philosophers and poets who were most important to the hippies. Included were psychedelic proponents Leary, Shulgin, and Hoffman.
Billie Carleton
CONTENT WARNING. See more in comments.
Today is the anniversary of Billie Carleton’s death. Born Florence Leonora Stewart, Billie Carleton was a rising star of the Edwardian stage. She appeared in Watch Your Step?, The Boy, and the Freedom of the Seas.
CONTENT WARNING. See more in comments.
Today is the anniversary of Billie Carleton’s death. Born Florence Leonora Stewart, Billie Carleton was a rising star of the Edwardian stage. She appeared in Watch Your Step?, The Boy, and the Freedom of the Seas.
November 28, 2024 at 4:18 PM
Billie Carleton
CONTENT WARNING. See more in comments.
Today is the anniversary of Billie Carleton’s death. Born Florence Leonora Stewart, Billie Carleton was a rising star of the Edwardian stage. She appeared in Watch Your Step?, The Boy, and the Freedom of the Seas.
CONTENT WARNING. See more in comments.
Today is the anniversary of Billie Carleton’s death. Born Florence Leonora Stewart, Billie Carleton was a rising star of the Edwardian stage. She appeared in Watch Your Step?, The Boy, and the Freedom of the Seas.
Morphine and heroin were not criminalised in the 19th C. Both were used medicinally and recreationally, including at morphine salons and parties. The War on Drugs has made so many lives disposable since its official inception in 1970 under the Nixon administration. Time for a change?
November 27, 2024 at 4:43 PM
Morphine and heroin were not criminalised in the 19th C. Both were used medicinally and recreationally, including at morphine salons and parties. The War on Drugs has made so many lives disposable since its official inception in 1970 under the Nixon administration. Time for a change?
Brimstone and Fire personified, Carrie Nation was hated, feared, lampooned, and admired in equal measure across the mid west of America in the late 19thC and early 20thC. In reality Carrie Nation was utterly uncompromising in her campaign for the prohibition of alcohol. A feminist icon.
November 22, 2024 at 8:40 PM
Brimstone and Fire personified, Carrie Nation was hated, feared, lampooned, and admired in equal measure across the mid west of America in the late 19thC and early 20thC. In reality Carrie Nation was utterly uncompromising in her campaign for the prohibition of alcohol. A feminist icon.
Feeling croaky? Voice Tabloids of cocaine were available from your pharmacy at the turn of the last century. One of the many pharmaceutical items we have at the Museum of Drugs. As the 20th Century progressed concerns about cocaine use increased as a result of media moral panics #dopegirls #cocaine
November 21, 2024 at 6:58 PM
Feeling croaky? Voice Tabloids of cocaine were available from your pharmacy at the turn of the last century. One of the many pharmaceutical items we have at the Museum of Drugs. As the 20th Century progressed concerns about cocaine use increased as a result of media moral panics #dopegirls #cocaine
A full-page advertisement appeared in The Times newspaper on the 24th July 1967, calling for the legalisation of marijuana. Among the signatories were The Beatles. Nearly 60 years later criminalisation for cannabis supply and possession continues. #thebeatles #beatles #1967
November 18, 2024 at 5:58 PM
A full-page advertisement appeared in The Times newspaper on the 24th July 1967, calling for the legalisation of marijuana. Among the signatories were The Beatles. Nearly 60 years later criminalisation for cannabis supply and possession continues. #thebeatles #beatles #1967
Benzedrine - ‘A versatile remedy’ as described in the Lancet. Check out the range of conditions it could purportedly help with.
November 16, 2024 at 10:40 PM
Benzedrine - ‘A versatile remedy’ as described in the Lancet. Check out the range of conditions it could purportedly help with.
Be warned! Marihuana -Weed with Roots in Hell 1936, warns the future public of the irrevocable slide into addiction and immortality resulting from that first puff 💨
November 16, 2024 at 1:33 PM
Be warned! Marihuana -Weed with Roots in Hell 1936, warns the future public of the irrevocable slide into addiction and immortality resulting from that first puff 💨
You’re the first person we’ve followed on here! 🥳@profaliceroberts.bsky.social Love your series by train. Fascinating.
November 16, 2024 at 11:09 AM
You’re the first person we’ve followed on here! 🥳@profaliceroberts.bsky.social Love your series by train. Fascinating.