MISTAKES/GOOFS

• DATE: Doctor Humphries identifies Silvio Balya as a "...dealer in cocaine and opium...". In the 1870s, neither substance was illegal in the US and most other countries. Cocaine was widely used in patent medicines and was easily available without prescription. US sale and distribution was banned in 1914, but it did not become a controlled substance until 1970. Opium was also legal, though local restrictions took effect in California as early as 1875; import was not banned nationwide until 1909. Like cocaine, it did not become a controlled substance until 1970. Famously, Coca-Cola contained trace amounts of coca from 1886 to 1906, and cocaine was the drug of choice for the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes.

TRIVIA