Legal drugs might represent a quick fix but dependency proves hard to swallow

For "calming down": Bex was popular throughout the 1960s and '70s.

There used to be a stoic resistance to taking drugs to treat even the worst of ailments. Migraines, muscle pain and insomnia were seen by the Silent Generation - those who came before the baby boomers - as treatable through a cup of tea, a warm bath, a lie down or some fresh air.

But come the 1960s and a medical element was added to that mix after a marketing phrase entered the vernacular - ''Have a cup of tea, a Bex and a good lie down''.

Bex, the analgesic comprised of aspirin, phenacetin and caffeine, became an Australian icon. It was recommended to treat headaches, colds, flu, fevers, rheumatism, nerve pain and for ''calming down''.

Dr Alex Wodak. Photo: Ari Hatzis

Dissolving Bex in tea became particularly common among housewives. It was sometimes taken up to three times a day.

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It wasn't until the 1970s that clinicians realised Bex and other similar substances were responsible for kidney disease and addiction, and were carcinogenic. Phenacetin was pulled from the market by 1983.

But the damage had been done, says the director of the national centre for education and training on addiction at Adelaide's Flinders University. Professor Ann Roche says taking drugs for even common illness or mild stress became a ''common Australian tradition'' and has remained so. Aggressive marketing from drug companies means it was even common to pop an analgesic in children's lunch boxes.

''Generally we don't think twice about taking certain medications,'' Roche says.

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Legal drugs might represent a quick fix but dependency proves hard to swallow