Granted, hindsight is 20/20, but some awfully strange substances have been used for pharmaceutical purposes in the past -- and some might argue, continue to be used today. Here are some vintage advertisements touting items that we might balk at taking today.

It seems that you can't go a day anymore without news of another professional athlete getting busted for performance-enhancing drugs. (Ironically, studies have shown that many of them don't necessarily improve performance and might actually detract from overall athletic function in the long run.) Most of these drugs actually serve legitimate functions outside of athletics and thus aren't illegal, but they're outlawed by various athletic organizations and are available to the public only by prescription -- something most athletes don't have. There are a lot of rumors of illegal usage by various athletes, but for the purposes of this list, we're sticking to those who've either admitted using or have tested positive for using performance enhancing drugs.

Hollywood and drugs go hand in hand, both within movie storylines and in real-life celebrity lifestyles. Here are 15 examples of fictional pharmaceutical drugs featured in movies and the real drugs that might achieve the same effects -- in case you're ever, you know, possessed by the devil or come down with a case of pyrokinesis.

Just because they're legal doesn't mean that pharmaceutical drugs are any less dangerous than illicit drugs. They are potentially deadly when taken in large doses or when combined with alcohol or other drugs. Sometimes it takes high-profile cases to remind us of the dangers. Here are 18 such cases.