Please don't assume the shelf life of pharmaceuticals in your
collections!  Several years ago, a colleague at the small museum
where I worked recatalogued the museum's collection of medical tools
and equipment.  Among the various labelled powders she found in late
18th- and mid-19th-century doctors' bags were morphine, opium, and
cocaine.  The drugs were confiscated by local police detectives who
had the drugs tested and found that they were up to 95% pure and 95%
potent.  Drug dogs in the vicinity of the powders apparently went
wild....

The museum had the choice of applying for a license to keep the drugs
or having them removed.  The vials in which the drugs were stored
were returned to the museum clean and with their labels intact,
according to the curator's request.

Katherine Krile
SITES
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