Soothing drug distributed to ill men (9)
I believe the answer is:
emollient
'soothing' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'drug distributed to ill men' is the wordplay.
'drug' becomes 'e' (e is another name for ecstasy).
'distributed' indicates an anagram.
'to'+'ill'+'men'='toillmen'
'toillmen' with letters rearranged gives 'mollient'.
'e'+'mollient'='EMOLLIENT'
(Other definitions for emollient that I've seen before include "cream" , "With a soothing effect" , "Soothing, calming" , "Substance that softens or soothes the skin" , "Application like a poultice - lemon lite (anag)" .)