Diacetylmorphine versus methadone for the treatment of opioid addiction.
Dextropropoxyphene/dicylomine (Proxyvon) and
diacetylmorphine (heroin) were the commonest drugs injected (81 and 73.5% respectively).
Bayer began production of
diacetylmorphine and coined the name
That this occurred during the nineteenth century, the great era of chemistry, would seem no accident: Sir Humphry Davy gave the first paper on nitrous oxide in 1800; in 1806 morphine became the first alkaloid to be isolated from its organic base; German scientists isolated cocaine in the middle of the century; Alexander Wood perfected the hypodermic syringe in 1874; and
diacetylmorphine, or heroin, was discovered in 1898.
Evaluation of the contents of a glassine envelope found at the scene revealed
diacetylmorphine (heroin).
In 1874, a London pharmacist searching for a non-addictive alternative to morphine discovered a derivative of that substance that was labeled
diacetylmorphine. It languished in the labs until 1898 when Bayer pharmaceuticals decided to market the drug as a cough suppressant.
Heroin is a name, copyrighted in Germany at the end of the nineteenth century, for
diacetylmorphine which has the formula ([C.sub.21.H.sub.23.NO.sub.5]).
(
Diacetylmorphine) Stuff, (total opiate) (as morphine)
Most patients were maintained on a single agonist, but many of the 80 patients maintained on
diacetylmorphine received additional opioids for issues such as avoiding night-time withdrawal.
In addition, Spain has over 50 detoxification wards and the communities of Cataluna y Andalucia have trial clinics for
Diacetylmorphine, a heroin substitute.
* Heroin (
diacetylmorphine) is rapidly metabolized to 6-acetylmorphine and then to morphine.