At the beginning of the nineteenth century, opium was widely used as an everyday remedy for common ailments. By 1900, as today, it was classified a "Dangerous Drug" and its use severely restricted. This intriguing examniatoin of the social context of drgu-taking in Victorian England (morphine, cannabis and cocaine as well as opium) explains this decisive change in attitude and brings fresh perspective to the motivations that surviv in the formation of current drug-policies).