There is little doubt that heroin has been a drug that has caused a huge amount of misery around the world. It then makes it even more remarkable to learn that the term ‘heroin’ used to be trademarked, and it was one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world that owned it.
In the early 1900s, and going back further in time, the trademark was held by the company Bayer. They actually lost aspects of the trademark after the end of WWI simply because they were a German company and it was part of the Treaty of Versailles.
They used to sell it in bottles as a cure for various ailments until it was better understood regarding the way in which it was so addictive and difficult to stop taking. You might also want to know that, for a time at least, it was sold as a potential cure for a cough!
We need to stress that we are talking about the laboratory version, but then it’s not really any different to the drug that people abuse since it all derives from a morphine base.