# 200 year old cough syrup?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/200-year-old-cough-syrup/230358
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [February 21, 2004, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/200-year-old-cough-syrup/230358 "2004-02-21T11:05:39Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@tofudon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tofudon)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2004, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/200-year-old-cough-syrup/230358/1 "2004-02-21T11:05:39Z")
[http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3274720596&category=895](http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3274720596&category=895)
Assuming i broke that bottle open and somehow consumed the hard,gooey,somewhere between contents inside would i catch a nice opiate buzz?
---
### Author:  [@Oregon\_sunshine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oregon_sunshine)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2004, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/200-year-old-cough-syrup/230358/2 "2004-02-21T12:10:52Z")
If the bottle is full of opiate resin, I don’t think it would be allowed to be auctioned on Ebay. [Here’s their policy on controlled substances.](http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/drugs.html)
Unless Ebay administrators haven’t caught it yet… they have no way of knowing what exactly is in the stuff, and probably have a big job checking all their auctions for legality/compliance with policy. Didn’t someone have an auction up for their left kidney for a brief time?
---
### Author:  [@tofudon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tofudon)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2004, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/200-year-old-cough-syrup/230358/3 "2004-02-21T12:39:52Z")
Well i happened on these antique collectible old medicine bottles and noticed that some of them are advertised as unused/full.
Which brought up the question of just how long opiate resin can last.
Just check out the top few results
[http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?query=cough+syrup&ht=1&sosortproperty=1&from=R10&BasicSearch=](http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?query=cough+syrup&ht=1&sosortproperty=1&from=R10&BasicSearch=)
---
### Author:  [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2004, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/200-year-old-cough-syrup/230358/4 "2004-02-21T15:17:10Z")
Here’s another auction for Dill’s Cough Syrup, and the seller lists the active ingredients on the label as alcohol and chloroform:
[http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?MfcISAPICommand=GetResult&SortProperty=MetaEndSort&ht=1&query=dill's](http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?MfcISAPICommand=GetResult&SortProperty=MetaEndSort&ht=1&query=dill%27s)