I don't know if I phrased my question very well, but...

Opium used to be easily accessible to everyone -- laudanum, patent medicines, etc. before governments stepped in and made such products controlled substances (mostly available by prescription only).

Given that a very large number of people die from overdoses every day now, I can only imagine that prior to regulation overdoses were even more common.

Is there any data on the number of overdoses prior to regulation? Perhaps a comparison to the current situation? I'm curious as to whether regulating opium products increased, decreased or didn't change the number of overdoses.

Thanks :)