Heritics of Heroin

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Drug	HEROIN (Diacetylmorphine) (Diamorphine- Hydrochloride).
Description	A semi-synthetic opiate, diacetylmorphine is produced by boiling morphine base in acetic anhydride and purifying the resulting heroin base with hydrochloric acid. (Mexican "black tar" derives from a shortcut process, with lots of vegetable matter remaining in the final product.) First synthesized by a British chemist in 1874, and first marketed by Bayer Co. in 1898 as a cough remedy, the name derives from "heroisch," German for "powerful." Prohibited by the U.S. government in 1924, this is the ultimate Bad Boy drug. Roughly three times more potent than morphine, heroin is favored by drug users because it readily by-passes the blood-brain barrier--making for a warm rush upon injection--though it promptly reconverts to morphine in the body. Highly addictive! Caveat Emptor!
Member	Monkeyboy (David C. Morrison)

Drug	OPIUM (Papaver Somniferum)
Description	The source of God's Own Medicine, opium has been in use since prehistoric times. Can be grown almost everywhere on the planet, though Southeast Asia,Southwest Asia, Colombia and Mexico are the source for most of the world's illicit opiate production. The poppy's latex gum contains from 3-25% morphine content, plus smaller amounts of codeine and a wealth of other alkaloids. Pantopon is a pharmaceutical preparation of injectible opium. Otherwise, the gum can be eaten, or once boiled and strained into a tarry paste called "chandu" can be smoked. Gum opium is only rarely encountered in the U.S. street market.
Member	Monkeyboy (David C. Morrison)

Drug	MORPHINE
Description	First isolated by Friedrich Serturner in early 1800s, and still a staple analgesic in hospitals, morphine is the Mother Molecule. Once the staple of injecting addicts, morphine was driven off of the street market after passage of the 1914 Harrison Narcotic Act by heroin, which was more potent and more readily adulterated. Morphine sulfate is currently available in a wide variety of trademarked prescription preparations: Duramorph, Oramorph, MS-Contin, Roxanol, etc. Most of these preparations are best taken orally, as directed. When injected into a vein, morphine produces a decidedly unpleasant pins-and-needles rush.
Member	Monkeyboy (David C. Morrison)

Drug	CODEINE (Methylmorphine)
Description	First isolated in 1832, codeine occurs naturally in opium gum, though in smaller amounts than morphine. Most of the codeine on the market is thus produced by chemically converting morphine. The body, ironically, then converts the codeine back into morphine--though inefficiently. Codeine is thus only one-tenth as potent as morphine. Available in a wide number of pharmaceutical preparations for coughs and mild pain--most notably as Tylenol 3, containing 30 mgs. of codeine--this is the most easily acquired of pharmaceutical opiates. It is only moderately euphoric, however, and is thus considered to have a low potential for creating addiction and tolerance.
Member	Monkeyboy (David C. Morrison)

Drug	DILAUDID (Hydromorphone)
Description	Patented in 1953, hydromorphone is a semisynthetic variant of morphine that is roughly as powerful as heroin. In fact, it is often referred to as "drugstore heroin." Available as Dilaudid in 2, 4 and 8 mg. tablets, this powerful opiate is widely available on the streets; favored by many addict users because it is chemically pure. A superconcentrated injectible solution, Dilaudid-HP, is rarely found outside of hospitals. Typically the tablets are prepared in a "cold shake": place a tablet in the barrel of the syringe, replace the plunger, pull in some water and shake until dissolved. Other users simply crush and cook the tablets, like any other dope. This stuff is very addictive and very expensive because tolerance typically builds up very rapidly.
Member	Monkeyboy (David C. Morrison)

Drug	HYDROCODONE (Vicodin, Lortab, Lorcet, Hycodan)
Description	Patented by Merck in 1925, hydrocodone is a semisynthetic codeine derivative that is four times more potent than its parent alkaloid but only a thirdas powerful as morphine. Typically prescribed for relief of coughs or mild-to-moderate pain, hydrocodone produces much more euphoria than does an equivalent dose of codeine, and has thus generated a considerable black market and legions of devotees/addicts. The pains of withdrawal also fall somewhere between those of codeine and morphine in severity, but--as always--the real hook is psychological and there is a considerable "Vicodin Underground" out there amongst middle-class druggies with friendly doctors.
Member	Monkeyboy (David C. Morrison)

Drug	OXYCODONE (Percocet, Percodan, Roxicet, Oxycontin, Tylox)
Description	First isolated in 1916, oxycodone is derived from the opium alkaloid thebaine, which is itself not a pleasure drug. Though typically available only in oral preparations, oxycodone is as potent as morphine and extremely euphoric. This is the drug that Beat writer William Burroughs was slamming during his Tangier years (in a German-made injectible formulation called Eukodal). Though Burroughs described this as the "best junk kick ever," he also found that the onset of tolerance was swift and that withdrawal from oxycodone was as harsh as that from morphine. If you have a high-tolerance heroin habit, oral oxycodone is not likely to do much for you. Taking large numbers of Percocets can also prove dangerous because the high dose of acetaminophin (325 mgs. per pill, compared to only 5 mgs. of oxydone) is very hard on the liver. On the other hand, Oxycontin, the time-release formulation, has no NSAID filler, and can be crushed and cooked and injected, if you are of a mind to do so.
Member	Monkeyboy (David C. Morrison)

Drug	MEPERIDINE (Demerol, Pethidine)
Description	Patented in 1930, Demerol was the first purely synthetic opioid drug ever to be marketed. Early hopes that it would prove to be non-addictive were quickly dashed. Though only one-tenth as potent as morphine, meperidine is highly euphoric and is favored by users who have access to it (i.e., doctors and nurses) because it does not cause those tell-tale pinpoint pupils. In high doses--which can reached quite quickly because tolerance sets in promptly--meperidine can cause seizures and a variety of temporary neurological disorders. On the other hand, withdrawal is more short-lived and less severe than from heroin or morphine.
Member	Monkeyboy (David C. Morrison

Drug	METHADONE (Dolophine tablets, Methadone Hcl diskettes and solution)
Description	Developed by German pharmacologists in 1943, when access to opium was cut off during World War II, Dolophine was not named after Adolf Hitler. (That name derives from "dolor" for pain, and the Nazis called the stuff Amidone, anyway.) Roughly equipotent with morphine, methadone boasts better than four times the staying power and is highly active in an oral dose. Thus its use in official treatments of opiate addiction; addicts can be dosed but once a day with a liquid solution that cannot be easily diverted. This is also one of the most highly regulated drugs in America, which often makes methadone maintenance in clinics a bureaucratic nightmare for addicts seeking a change from the street scene. By federal law, any methadone detox lasting longer than 21 days is considered methadone maintenance. Many states mandate dosage ceilings, resulting in the undermedication of clients. Bear in mind that methadone "blockades" the effects of heroin simply by establishing and maintaining a tolerance to opiates. If so inclined, low-dose patients can readily "shoot through" the blockade, though this can be expensive and dangerous. Warning: Though slow and easy at the beginning, cold-turkey methadone withdrawal is extremely protracted and very unpleasant.
Member	monkeyboy (David C. Morrison

Drug	BUPRENORPHINE (Buprenex)
Description	Derived from the opium alkaloid thebaine, buprenorphine is roughly thirty times more powerful than morphine and longer lasting, to boot. It is, however, a mixed agonist-antagonist, meaning that it bonds with some of the body's opiate receptors, but unseats opiate molecules from other receptors. And that means that this drug can cause withdrawal symptoms if administered to a high-tolerance addict. On the other hand, buprenorphine is reputed to be quite euphoric and withdrawal from the drug is comparatively easy. (This is the chief drug of abuse by street addicts in India.) The FDA is on the verge of approving a buprenorphine formulation for maintenance treatment of opiate addiction: A sublingual tablet will contain a dose of the pure-antagonist drug, naloxone. If a patient goes against orders and cooks the buprenorphine pill down for injection, the Naloxone, inactive sublingually, would throw him or her into violent withdrawal upon being shot up.
Member	Monkeyboy (David C. Morrison)