How Heroin turned hero 基醫所博二姓名

How Heroin turned hero 基醫所 : 博二姓名 : 蘇翔學號 : S 58921484

A hundred years ago Heinrich Dreser made a fortune from the discovery of heroin and aspirin but he may have ended his days as an addict. Here we reports on a chemist who prescribed heroin for coughs

Professor Heinrich Dreser (1860 - 1924)

n n n Between 1897 and 1914, Dreser worked for Bayer, Germany. Head of Bayer's pharmacological laboratory, responsible for the launch of two drugs : aspirin, the world's most successful legal drug; and heroin, the most successful illegal one. Heroin was launched in November 1898 but was registered as a trademark in various countries from June that year, most lucratively in the US in August.

n Born in 1860, in Darmstadt, the son of a physics professor n Received doctorate from Heidelberg University n Became professor at Bonn University in 1893. n Four years later he joined the Bayer Company, where he was in charge of testing the efficacy and safety of new drugs.

n n In 1897 the Bayer chemist Felix Hoffmann, discovered a new process for modifying salicyclic acid to produce acetylsalicyclic acid (ASA). This compound, later to be named Aspirin, had been isolated before and the healing powers of salicylates (derived from willow bark) had been known for centuries.

n n n Eichengruen recommended ASA to Dreser in 1898. Dreser rejected it. His objection was that ASA would have an "enfeebling" action on the heart. But the real problem was almost certainly that he had another product on his mind whose impending success he was anxious not to jeopardise. This was heroin.

Diacetylmorphine n n The drug that Bayer launched under the trademark Heroin in 1898 was not n an original discovery. n Diacetylmorphine, a white, odourless, bitter, crystalline powder deriving from morphine, had been invented in 1874 by an English chemist, C R Wright. But Dreser was the first to see its commercial potential. Scientists had been looking for some time for a non-addictive substitute for morphine, then widely used as a painkiller and in the treatment of respiratory diseases. If diacetylmorphine could be shown to be such a product, Bayer - and Dreser - would hit the jackpot

The Opium Poppy According to one tradition, opium poppies sprung from the tears of Aphrodite when she mourned for her beloved Adonis Aphrodite

The Opium Poppy: Papaver Somniferum n n Common names: White Poppy, Opium Poppy, Mawseed, Herb of Joy, Mohn, Klapper-Rosen, Mago, Magesamen, Weismagen, wilder Magen, Magensaph, Rosule, Adormidero, Hashas, Kheshkhash Abu Al Noum, O Fang, O Fu Jung, O P'Ien, Tengkoh, Ya P'Ien, Yu Mi. "If opium-eating be a sensual pleasure, and if I am bound to confess that I have indulged in it to an excess, not yet recorded of any other man, it is no less true, that I have struggled against this fascinating enthralment with a religious zeal, and have, at length, accomplished what I never yet heard attributed to any other man - have untwisted, almost to its final links the accursed chain which fettered me. " (from Confessions of an English Opium Eater) n English essayist and critic, best-known for his autobiography CONFESSIONS OF AN ENGLISH OPIUM EATER, which appeared first in 1821 in London Magazine. De Quincey was addicted to opium from his youth for the rest of his life.

Papaver Somniferum "Among the remedies which it has pleased Almighty God to give to man to relieve his sufferings, none is so universal and so efficacious as opium. " Thomas Sydenham (1624 - 1689)

n n n By early 1898, Dreser was testing it on sticklebacks, frogs and rabbits. He also tested it on some of Bayer's workers, and on himself. The workers loved it, some saying it made them feel "heroic" (heroisch). This was also the term used by chemists to describe any strong drug (and diacetylmorphine is four times stronger than morphine).

n n In November 1898, Dreser presented the drug to the Congress of German Naturalists and Physicians, claiming it was 10 times more effective as a cough medicine than codeine, but had only a tenth of its toxic effects. It was also more effective than morphine as a painkiller. It was safe. It wasn't habitforming. In short, it was a wonder drug the Viagra of its day.

HEROIN A powerful remedy for coughs Advertisement from 1903 medical journal "To our surprise we have not been able to locate even one scientific study on the proved harmful effects of addiction" Dr George H Stephenson University of British Columbia, 1956

Heroin seemed a godsend n n Tuberculosis and pneumonia were the leading causes of death at that time, and even routine coughs and colds could be severely incapacitating. Heroin, depresses respiration and, as a sedative, gives a restorative night's sleep, seemed a godsend Dreser wrote about the drug in medical journals, and studies had endorsed his view that heroin could be effective in treating asthma, bronchitis, phthisis and tuberculosis. Mailshots and free samples were sent out by the thousand to physicians in Europe and the US.

Heroin: the cure for asthma? Medical fashions come and go "Opium teaches only one thing, which is that aside from physical sufffering, there is nothing real" André Malraux (1901 -1976) MAN'S FATE

n n By 1899, Bayer was producing about a ton of heroin a year, and exporting the drug to 23 countries. The country where it really took off was the US, where there was already a large population of morphine addicts, a craze for patent medicines, and a relatively lax regulatory framework. Manufacturers of cough syrup were soon lacing their products with Bayer heroin. There were heroin pastilles, heroin cough lozenges, heroin tablets, water-soluble heroin salts and a heroin elixir in a glycerine solution. Bayer never advertised heroin to the public but the publicity material it sent to physicians was unambiguous. One flyer described the product thus: "Heroin: the Sedative for Coughs. . . order a supply from your jobber. "

Ayer's Cherry Pectoral Just what the doctor ordered? AYER'S CHERRY PECTORAL "Cures Colds, Coughs and all Diseases of the Throat and Lungs"

Prons and Cons n "It possesses many advantages over morphine, " wrote the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal in 1900. "It's not hypnotic, and there's no danger of acquiring a habit. “ n n n 1899, researchers began to report patients developing "tolerance" to the drug, A German researcher denounced it as "an extremely dangerous poison". By 1902 - French and American researchers were reporting cases of "heroinism" and addiction.

n n n Between 1899 and 1905, at least 180 clinical works on heroin were published around the world, and most were favourable, if cautious. In 1906, the American Medical Association approved heroin for medical use, though with strong reservations about a "habit" that was "readily formed". But with the accumulation of negative reports and the steady encroachment on the market by other manufacturers, it was clear heroin would never deliver the riches that Dreser had yearned for.

H IS FOR HEROIN "That individuals may take morphine or some other opiate for 20 years or more without showing intellectual or moral deterioration is a common experience of physicians" Dr Lawrence Kolb, US Assistant Surgeon General, 1925

n n In 1913, Bayer decided to stop making heroin. There had been an explosion of heroin related admissions at New York and Philadelphia hospitals, and in East Coast cities a substantial population of recreational users was reported (some supported their habits by collecting and selling scrap metal, hence the name "junkie"). Prohibition seemed inevitable and, sure enough, the next year the use of heroin without prescription was outlawed in the US. (A court ruling in 1919 also determined it illegal for doctors to prescribe it to addicts. )

"All penalties for drug users should be dropped. . . Making drug abuse a crime is useless and even dangerous. . . Every year we seize more and more drugs but the quantity available still increases. . . Police are losing the drug battle worldwide" Raymond Kendall Secretary General of Interpol 1994

n n n When war broke out Dreser moved to Dusseldorf as honorary, unsalaried professor of his own pharmacological institute at the new Medical Academy. Thereafter, the record becomes indistinct. There were rumours that he was addicted to heroin himself.

n n In 1924, the US banned the use and manufacture of heroin altogether, even for medical purposes. In Britain, the medical use of heroin continues to this day, accounting for 95 percent of the world's legal heroin consumption. The same year, four days before Christmas, Dreser died. The cause of death was given as a cerebral apoplexy, or stroke. If the rumours of addiction were true, the irony is doubled: Dreser, incorrigible in his misjudgment, had spent his twilight years taking a daily dose of the wrong wonder drug.

n n In 1898, there were an estimated 250 000 morphine addicts in the US - a per capita rate roughly twice as high as today's. In Britain, opium use was widespread, especially in East Anglia, where it was a more or less necessary antidote to the malaria endemic in the Fens. It was also used as a sedative for babies.

Mrs Winslow's Soothing Syrup "For children teething. Greatly facilitates the process of Teething, by softening the gums, reducing all inflammation; will allay ALL PAIN and spasmodic action, and is SURE TO REGULATE THE BOWELS. Depend on it, Mothers, it will give rest to yourselves and RELIEF AND HEALTH TO YOUR INFANTS. Sold by all chemists, at 1 s 1/2 d per bottle. " "Oh, jab me with your needle a hundred times And a hundred times I will bless you, Saint Morphine" Jules Verne (1828 - 1905)

n n Pharmacologically, heroin has the same effect as morphine. But you need only about a quarter as much to get the same effect. It is also cheaper, quicker and easier to use. As national and international legislation against opiates gathered force after 1914, addicts who wished to continue their habit inevitably switched to heroin. By 1924, 98 percent of New York's drug addicts were thought to be heroin addicts. With legal channels of supply closed, criminal gangs first Jewish, then Italian - began to monopolise the trade. By the end of the 30 s, the Mafia was inextricably involved.

A New York Opium Den "Nobody will laugh long who deals much with opium: its pleasures even are of a grave and solemn complexion. " Thomas de Quincey (1785 - 1859) Confessions of an English Opium-Eater

Manila Opium Den "I believe that pipe smoking contributes to a somewhat calm and objective judgement in all human affairs. " Albert Einstein (1879 -1955) "There were opium dens where one could buy oblivion, dens of horror where the memory of old sins could be destroyed by the madness of sins that were new" Oscar Wilde The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891)

"Narcotics have been systematically scapegoated and demonized. The idea that anyone can use drugs and escape a horrible fate is an anathema to these idiots. I predict that in the near future right-wingers will use drug hysteria as a pretext to set up an international police apparatus. " William S. Burroughs (1914 - 1997)

n n n Heroin use in Britain and the US is increasing faster than at any time since the 60 s: heroin seizures rose by 135 percent between 1996 and 1997. There are thought to be between 160 000 and 200 000 heroin addicts in the UK, who spend almost R 30 -billion a year on heroin. And the British government spends R 14 -billion a year on drug-related policies. In 1898, the typical morphine addict in Britain or the US was a middle-class woman in her forties, whereas today's typical addict is an 18 -year-old male.

Opium-Pipe Smoking THE OPIUM-SMOKER "I am engulfed, and drown deliciously Soft music like a perfume, and sweet light Golden with audible colours exquisite, Swathe me with cerements for eternity. Times is no more. I pause and yet I flee. A million ages wrap me round with night. I drain a milion ages of delight. I hold the future in my memory. Also, I have this garret which I rent, This bed of straw, and this that was a chair, This worn-out body like a tattered tent, This crust, of which the rats have eaten part, This pipe of opium; rage, remorse, despair; This soul at pawn and this delirious heart. " Arthur Symons (1865 -1945)

"There is always a need for intoxication: China has opium, Islam hashish, the West has woman. " André Malraux (1901 -1976) MAN'S FATE

References n n http: //opioids. com/index. html 藥品的發展與人對健康的期待高雅慧成大醫學院臨床藥學研究所 n n GLOBAL ILLICITDRUG TRENDS 2003

How Heroin turned hero 基醫所 博二 姓名

How Heroin turned hero 基醫所博二姓名