Great moments in marketing............

The Bayer Company, whose fabulous aspirin was the one cure-all in my parent's medicine cabinet, mass marketed Heroin as a relief for coughs and other respiratory ailments.  Yes, that heroin.  Beginning in 1898, Bayer developed and sold it as being a non-addictive substitute for morphine.  Oops. By 1913, it had become obvious that they were wrong about that non-addictive thing and, despite the increased demand for the product, they stopped making and selling it.  More here.