Growing up in Kenya in the 80s, it was common to take chloroquine as an anti-malarial medicine. I took it several times and the same applied to almost every other person I knew. Other than being a very bitter medicine, I do not remember any other side effects. This was commonly prescribed and available over the counter. However, in the 90s, doctors started encouraging people to take newer anti-malarial medicines because the of drug resistance of the malaria parasites. However,I know of only one person who ever got blind from taking anti-malarial medicine and that was not exactly chloroquine but quinine. There are differences between the two. As per the Wikipedia page, chloroquine is considered a safe and essential medicine by the WHO.