Here’s a little-known fact. One hundred twenty-five years ago, German-based pharmaceutical giant Bayer, famous for developing aspirin, brought to market a much more robust painkiller to the United States. It was called heroin, borrowed from the German word translating to “heroic.” Bayer promoted the drug as safe for children, freely available to anyone over eighteen, and touted as a remedy for everything from asthma, epilepsy and stomach cancer to coughs, colds and schizophrenia.