If your doctor tells you that the pain in your leg is due to the fact you're forty and still jogging, you are unlikely to ask him to check for bone cancer.  When you buy the latest kids shampoo with bubblegum scent, you trust that it is safe for your kids.  High fructose corn syrup cannot possible be bad for you...it is in just about everything you eat or drink. 

We trust that our doctor, the chemists, the monolithic makers of everything on the shelf at the local grocery and perhaps most importantly, our government, know what they are doing and have our interests, health and safety of prime concern. Some of this is out of necessity because the world has simply gotten too complex and interdependent for an individual to manage everything as a singular entity. We HAVE to trust the system. 

However, this phenomenon is not a product of the 21st century.  Individuals have entrusted quite literally their lives to so called "professionals" throughout the history of Western Civilization.   There is perhaps no better example of this than as illustrated by the origins of today's most dangerous, addictive and almost universally illegal drugs.

Morphine, named for the Greek god of dreams Morpheus, is today used almost exclusively as an analgesic for managing severe pain. It is known to be highly addictive. During World War II, morphine was administered on the battlefield regularly when risk of addiction seemed moot.

Morphine was originally marketed in 1817 as a cure for opium and alcohol abuse. It worked marvelously and was widely used legally for nearly a hundred years until federal regulations changed how a prescription worked from a legal standpoint. It is available by prescription, but it is almost exclusively administered within the confines of the hospital.

We now know that morphine "cured" alcoholism for no other reason than it was far more addictive than alcohol. The trend begins.

Heroin, the brand name for diacetylmorphine, was actually derived from morphine. In 1898, Bayer marketed Heroin alongside their other wonder-drug, Aspirin, as a cure for morphine addiction and as a cough suppressant - often administered to children. The drug was legally sold for medicinal purposes in the United States until 1924. It is no longer available even by prescription.

We now know that heroin is one of the most addictive drugs on the planet. Of course it cures morphine addiction. It does however function as a very effective fever reducer, but it would have to a pretty high fever to be worth the risk.

As an aside, I remember years ago when my grandmother was in the end stages of essentially full body cancer her doctor said that they only thing that would alleviate her pain was heroin. And, of course, it was illegal. Maybe we should entrust our doctors in some circumstances.

Cocaine's origins go back further than virtually any other drug known to modern society due to the coca plant's status as a core crop for South American societies dating back at least a thousand years. The coca leaf has long been known to function as both an anesthetic and a stimulant.

In the late nineteenth century, doctors began experimenting with cocaine as an effective replacement for the unreliable anesthetic ether and the often dangerous chloroform. As a local anesthetic, cocaine appeared unsurpassed in effectiveness.

During the same time, coca leaves with cocaine were used as an ingredient in all varieties of popular beverages including wine, and of course, the original formula for Coca-Cola.

As late as the early twentieth century, drug-stores sold products containing cocaine as stimulants. Today we have Red Bull. Coca-Cola no longer contains cocaine, but it is still the #1-selling beverage in the world.

In 1914, cocaine was finally outlawed in the United States. The law also incorrectly classified the drug as a narcotic. Most people today still identify cocaine as a narcotic, but few know that the original definition of narcotic refers strictly to drugs derived from opium. The proper classification of cocaine is stimulant, but the law has expanded the various definitions to be all inclusive.

Today we have the FDA and about a thousand other regulatory agencies operating throughout the world to function as watchdogs for us, the individual.  However, today the average individual likely experiences thousands more products than the individual of 150 years ago. 

From shoe polish and detergent to salad dressing and air filters, the 21st-Century individual entrusts their health and well-being to an immeasurable number of entities. 

You're drive yourself crazy trying to consider it, but it makes you wonder...

What are we missing?