You better go easy on that stuff," with Mattie replying, "Wyatt, leave me alone..."
In the film From Hell (2001), Inspector Abberline is a user of laudanum, and Jack the Ripper also uses laudanum for making his victims sleepy. In the TV series Deadwood, the town doctor recommends laudanum several times, bringing a bottle of it to a patient. Initially in the series, Alma Garrett is an addict to laudanum. Trixie is a former addict. In Dan Simmonss novel Drood (2009) the narrator Wilkie Collins takes laudanum daily to alleviate a wide variety of pains as well as to induce sleep. In the horror video-game Amnesia: The Dark Descent (2010), laudanum can be found at several places in the castle, and can be used to regain health. In the role-playing video-game Darkest Dungeon (2016), laudanum is a provision that is used to cure Horror, a stress-over-time negative effect. The role of laudanum is revisited in Darkest Dungeon 2. In the browser-based role-playing video game Fallen London, the main character can take laudanum to decrease Nightmares, a negative stat, at the cost of increasing Wounds, another negative stat. In Eleanor Cattons novel The Luminaries (2013), and the subsequent TV adaptation (2020), many characters are addicted to laudanum and it is used to murder Crosbie Wells. In Sara Collins novel The Confessions of Frannie Langton (2019), the titular character becomes addicted to laudanum. In the film The Highwaymen (2019), Bonnie Parker (Emily Brobst) of Bonnie and Clyde fame is addicted to laudanum.
20th century laudanum
The early 20th century brought increased regulation of all manner of narcotics, including laudanum, as the addictive properties of opium became more widely understood, and "patent medicines came under fire, largely because of their mysterious compositions". : 126  In the US, the Food and Drug Act of 1906 required that certain specified drugs, including alcohol, cocaine, heroin, morphine, and cannabis, be accurately labeled with contents and dosage. Previously many drugs had been sold as patent medicines with secret ingredients or misleading labels. Cocaine, heroin, cannabis, and other such drugs continued to be legally available without prescription as long as they were labeled. It is estimated that sale of patent medicines containing opiates decreased by 33% after labeling was mandated. In 1906 in Britain and in 1908 in Canada "laws requiring disclosure of ingredients and limitation of narcotic content were instituted". : 126 The Harrison Narcotics Tax Act of 1914 restricted the manufacture and distribution of opiates, including laudanum, and coca derivatives in the US. This was followed by Frances Loi des stupéfiants in 1916, and Britains Dangerous Drugs Act in 1920.: 126 Laudanum was supplied to druggists and physicians in regular and concentrated versions. For example, in 1915, Frank S. Betz Co., a medical supply company in Hammond, Indiana, advertised Tincture of Opium, U.S.P., for $2.90 per lb., Tincture of Opium Camphorated, U.S.P, for 85 cents per lb., and Tincture of Opium Deodorized, for $2.85 per lb. Four versions of opium as a fluid extract were also offered: (1) Opium, Concentrated (assayed) "For making Tincture Opii (Laudanum) U.S.P.