Cigarettes bought from a hospital bed in the 1950s
Prior to the Surgeon General’s warning connecting tobacco use to cancer, heart disease, and a variety of other illnesses, the medical community did not consider smoking to be a health risk. In fact, smoking was considered to soothe a worried person, suppress appetites, and generally be beneficial.
As absurd and counter-productive as it may seem, hospital patients could purchase packets of cigarettes from their hospital beds during this time. They could even smoke in their hospital rooms if they wanted to!