Collection Spotlight

No matter how big or small, every artifact tells a story. While only a fraction of the objects and images in the Museum's collection, these eye-catching artifacts capture significant moments in the history of drugs and drug law enforcement.

A green and cream-colored ceramic opium pillow.

Opium Pillow

A ceramic headrest used by people who smoked opium.

Opium Packing Stamp

Opium Packing Stamp

An opium packing stamp used to mark packages of opium processed by a refinery in Afghanistan.

A tan form with red text.

Opium Order Form

An early 20th-century order form for opium, an addictive narcotic.

A medicine bottle wrapped in tan, printed paper next to a colorful card featuring a woman and her two children looking at a newspaper advertisement.

Mrs. Winslow’s Soothing Syrup

An advertisement and bottle of Mrs. Winslow’s Soothing Syrup, a patent medicine that contained morphine.

Morphine syrette

Morphine Syrette

A morphine syrette originally packaged in the medical kit of a World War II soldier.

Metal I Beam

Metal I Beam

A hollow metal I beam that unsuccessfully concealed cocaine from law enforcement officers.

blue and gold lowrider bike

Lowrider Bicycle

A blue and gold DEA lowrider bicycle created for DEA’s 50th anniversary.

A skeletal Santa Muerte statue

La Santa Muerte Statue

A spiritual icon found among members of the Gulf, Sinaloa, and Juarez drug cartels.

A glass bottle of pills labeled "La Grippe."

La Grippe Bottle

An early 20th-century pill bottle used to treat “la grippe,” or the flu.

A taxidermy fish with a slit in its side.

Koi Fish

A koi fish used to smuggle heroin into the United States.