History Channel - Potions or Poisons?

Originally aired as part of The History Channel's IN SEARCH OF HISTORY series, this illuminating documentary examines the efforts of Dr. Harvey Wiley and journalist Samuel Hopkins to halt the dangerous trend of traveling "medicine shows" that would swindle the sickly and desperate with so-called "miracle cures" which were often more harmful than helpful. Before the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act, roving hucksters were free to package drugs like cocaine and opium and travel from town to town, selling them to anyone who had so much as a lingering cold that refused to go away. But the people who profited from snake oils weren't about to give up without a fight, and over the course of the following decades, they continued to ply their trade with the support of an eager public, even as government regulation grew increasingly restrictive.