When Bayer marketed heroin at the turn of the twentieth century, it offered free samples of the drug to potential customers. When Roche was seeking a foothold for Valium in Canada during the 1970s, the company gave away eighty-two million Valium pills as free samples in a single year. If you are selling a product that makes people feel good (and may also be highly addictive), that first free hit will generally pay for itself many times over.
