Party Favors

Morphine is a strong opiate or narcotic found naturally in opium, a dark brown resin extracted from poppies. It became the drug of choice for treating wounded soldiers in the Civil War and proved highly addictive.

Heroin, made from morphine, was introduced in 1898 as less addictive than morphine. That claim was false.

Oxycodone, a semi-synthetic opioid developed in 1916 to manage severe acute and chronic pain, also demonstrated high rates of addiction.

OxyContin arrived in 1995 with the promis...