History of Heroin
Content
History of Heroin Heroin, which is a very popular drug of choice in the American drug culture today, is not a new drug that just showed up in the late 1960's, nor are its negative effects unique to modern times. Heroin is an opium derivative and, as with any of the opium derivatives, there is a severe physical/mental dependency that develops when Heroin is abused. The Birth of the American Heroin Addict In the mid to late 1800's, opium was a fairly popular drug. Opium dens were scattered throughout what we know today as the wild west. The opium influx during this period was due in large part to the drug being brought into the country via Chinese immigrants who came here to work on the railroads. Accurate American history tells us that famous names of the period like Wild Bill Hickock and Kit Carson actually frequented opium dens more often than saloons. The stereo-typed picture we have of the cowhand belly up to the bar drinking whiskey straight after a long hard ride on the dusty trail is only part of the story of the old west. Oftentimes the cowhand was not belly up to a bar at all. He was in a prone position in a dim candle-lit room smoking opium in the company of an oriental prostitute. It was not uncommon for some of these cowhands to spend several days and nights at a time in these dens in a constant dream-state, eventually becoming physically addicted to the drug. Nonetheless, it was true that alcoholism was a bigger problem. Alcoholism was one of the major sources of violence and death during this period. Eventually, however, opium was promoted as a cure for alcoholism by the late 1800's. It was from opium that morphine, a derivative, was developed as a pain killer in approximately 1810. It was considered a wonder drug because it eliminated severe pain associated with medical operations or traumatic injuries. It left the user in a completely numb euphoric dream-state. Because of the intense euphoric side effects, the drug in 1811 was named after the Greek god of dreams, Morpheus, by Dr. F.W.A. Serturner, a German pharmacist. By the mid 1850's, morphine was available in the United States and became more and more popular with the medical profession. The benefits of using the drug to treat severe pain was considered nothing short of remarkable to doctors of the time. Unfortunately, the addictive properties of the drug, on the flip side, went virtually unnoticed until after the Civil War.During the Civil War the numbers of people exposed to morphine in the course of being treated for their war-related injuries sky-rocketed. Tens of thousands of Northern and Confederate soldiers became morphine addicts.In just over 10 years time from its arrival into this country, the United States was plagued with a major morphine epidemic. Even though no actual statistics were kept on addiction at this time, the problem had grown to large enough proportions to raise serious concerns from the medical profession. Doctors became perplexed and were completely in the dark as to how to treat this new epidemic. By 1874 the answer to this increasing problem was thought to be found in the invention of a new drug in Germany. This new wonder drug was called Heroin, after its German trademarked name. Heroin was imported into the United States shortly after it was invented. The sales pitch that created an instant market to American doctors and their morphine addicted patients was that Heroin was a "safe, non-addictive" substitute for morphine.Hence, the heroin addict was born and has been present in American culture ever since.From the late 1800's to the early 1900's the reputable drug companies of the day began manufacturing over-the-counter drug kits. These kits contained a glass barreled hypodermic needle and vials of opiates (morphine or heroin) and/or cocaine packaged neatly in attractive engraved tin cases. Laudanum (opium in an alcohol base) was also a very popular elixir that was used to treat a variety of ills. Laudanum was administered to kids and adults alike - as freely as aspirin is used today.There were of course marketing and advertising campaigns launched by the drug companies producing this product that touted these narcotics as the cure for all types of physical and mental ailments ranging from alcohol withdrawal to cancer, depression, sluggishness, coughs, colds, tuberculosis and even old age. Most of the elixirs pitched by the old "snake oil salesmen" in their medicine shows contained one or more of these narcotics in their mix. Heroin, morphine and other opiate derivatives were unregulated and sold legally in the United States until 1920 when Congress recognized the danger of these drugs and enacted the Dangerous Drug Act.heroin in the U.S. had been created. By 1925 there were an estimated 200,000 heroin addicts in the country. It was a market which would persist until this day. Related article: Heroin Today
Morphine Drug Study
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2009
In making a Drug Study, the following elements must be present: Generic Name and the Brand name (not all brands, just the brand used by the patient), Action, Indication, Pregnancy Category, Drug Classification, and Contraindication, Adverse Effect, Drug interaction and Nursing Consideration/Intervention…. Most clinical instructors preferred this to be in a long bond paper in printed or handwritten with paper in landscape.
Morphine sulfate Pregnancy Category C, C-II controlled substance Drug class: Narcotic agonist analgesic Therapeutic actions Principal opium alkaloid; acts as agonist at specific opioid receptors in the CNS to produce analgesia, euphoria, sedation; the receptors mediating these effects are thought to be the same as those mediating the effects of endogenous opioids (enkephalins, endorphins). Indications · Relief of moderate to severe acute and chronic pain · Preoperative medication to sedate and allay apprehension, facilitate induction of anesthesia, and reduce anesthetic dosage · Analgesic adjunct during anesthesia
· Component of most preparations that are referred to as Brompton's cocktail or mixture, an oral alcoholic solution that is used for chronic severe pain, especially in terminal cancer patients · Intraspinal use with microinfusion devices for the relief of intractable pain · Unlabeled use: dyspnea associated with acute left ventricular failure and pulmonary edema Contraindications· Contraindicated with hypersensitivity to narcotics; diarrhea caused by poisoning until toxins are eliminated; during labor or delivery of a premature infant (may cross immature blood–brain barrier more readily); after biliary tract surgery or following surgical anastomosis; pregnancy; labor (respiratory depression in neonate; may prolong labor). Adverse effects Light-headedness, dizziness, sedation, euphoria, dysphoria, delirium, insomnia, agitation, anxiety, fear, hallucinations, disorientation, drowsiness, lethargy, impaired mental and physical performance, coma, mood changes, weakness, headache, tremor, convulsions, miosis, visual disturbances, suppression of cough reflex Facial flushing, peripheral circulatory collapse, tachycardia, bradycardia, arrhythmia, palpitations, chest wall rigidity, hypertension, hypotension, orthostatic hypotension, syncopePruritus, urticaria, laryngospasm, bronchospasm, edema Nausea, vomiting, dry mouth, anorexia, constipation, biliary tract spasm; increased colonic motility in patients with chronic ulcerative colitis Drug Interactions: Increased likelihood of respiratory depression, hypotension, profound sedation or coma in patients receiving barbiturate general anesthetics Nursing considerations· Caution patient not to chew or crush controlled-release preparations. Dilute and administer slowly IV to minimize likelihood of adverse effects.· Direct patient to lie down during IV administration.Provide narcotic antagonist, facilities for assisted or controlled respiration on standby during IV administration.· Use caution when injecting SC or IM into chilled areas or in patients with hypotension or in shock; impaired perfusion may delay absorption; with repeated doses, an excessive amount may be absorbed..........when circulation is restored. · Reassure patient about addiction liability; most patients who receive opiates for medical reasons do not develop dependence syndromes.
Morphine History
An opium-based elixir has been ascribed to alchemists of Byzantine times, but the specific formula was supposedly lost during the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople. Around 1522, Paracelsus made reference to an opium-based elixir which he called, ''laudanum'' from the Latin word ''laudare'' meaning "to praise." He described it as a potent pain killer, but recommended that it be used sparingly. In the late eighteenth century, after the British conquest of Bengal in 1757 gave the East India Company a direct interest in the opium trade, another opiate recipe called 'laudanum' became very popular among physicians and their patients.Morphine was discovered as the first active alkaloid extracted from the opium poppy plant in December 1804 in Paderborn by Friedrich Sertürner. The drug was first marketed to the general public by Sertürner and Company in 1817 as an analgesic, and also as a treatment for opium and alcohol addiction. Later it was found that morphine was more addictive than either alcohol or opium, and its extensive use during the American Civil War allegedly resulted in over 400,000 sufferers from the "soldier's disease" of morphine addiction. This idea has been a subject of controversy, as there have been suggestions that such a disease was in fact a fabrication; the first documented use of the phrase "soldier's disease" was in 1915.Diacetylmorphine (better known as heroin) was synthesized from morphine in 1874 and brought to market by Bayer in 1898. Heroin is approximately 1.5–2 times more potent than morphine on a milligram-for-milligram basis. Using a variety of subjective and objective measures, one study estimated the relative potency of heroin to morphineadministered intravenously to post-addicts to be 1.80–2.66 mg of morphine sulfate to 1 mg of diamorphine hydrochloride (heroin). Morphine became a controlled substance in the US under the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act of 1914, and possession without a prescription in the US is a criminal offense.Morphine was the most commonly abused narcotic analgesic in the world until heroin was synthesized and came into use. Until the synthesis of dihydromorphine (ca. 1900), the dihydromorphinone class of opioids (1920s), and oxycodone (1916) and similar drugs, there generally were no other drugs in the same efficacy range as opium, morphine, and heroin, with synthetics still several years away (pethidine was invented in Germany in 1937) and opioid agonists amongst the semi-synthetics were analogues and derivatives of codeine such as dihydrocodeine (Paracodin), ethylmorphine (Dionine), and benzylmorphine (Peronine). Even today, morphine is the most sought after prescription narcotic by heroin addicts when heroin is scarce, all other things being equal; local conditions and user preference may cause hydromorphone, oxymorphone, high-dose oxycodone, or methadone as well as dextromoramide in specific instances such as 1970s Australia, to top that particular list. The stop-gap drugs used by the largest absolute number of heroin addicts is probably codeine, with significant use also ofdihydrocodeine, poppy straw derivatives like poppy pod and poppy seed tea, propoxyphene, and tramadol. The structural formula of morphine was determined by 1925. At least three methods of total synthesis of morphine from starting materials such as coal tar and petroleum distillates have been patented, the first of which was announced in 1952, by Dr. Marshall D. Gates, Jr. at the University of Rochester. Still, the vast majority of morphine is derived from the opium poppy by either the traditional method of gathering latex from the scored, unripe pods of the poppy, or processes using poppy straw, the dried pods and stems of the plantIn 2003, there was discovery of endogenous morphine occurring naturally in the human body. apparently only reacted to morphine: the mu3 opiate receptor in human tissue. Human cells that form in reaction to cancerous neuroblastoma cells have been found to contain trace amounts of endogenous morphine.
Learn About Heroin Use, Abuse, and Treatment
Heroin is one of the most dangerous drugs in the world. Few drugs carry with them so many potential hazards for the user – psychological, physical and social in equal measure. Yet little is known about this addictive opiate outside of the treatment community. The information contained in this site is designed to shed light on the nature of heroin addiction, explore drug treatment options for heroin dependence as well as discuss important processes such as heroin detoxification, making it through heroin withdrawal and aftercare. If you or someone you love is suffering from a heroin drug addiction, the life-saving information you need may just well be found within the pages of this heroin website.
Photographing a Heroin Addict through Despair, Horror and Hope
by GRETA RYBU S on SEPTEMBER 7, 2012 · 6 COMMENTS
Heroin Addiction
Although the urban legend that all heroin users become addicted after trying the drug just once is just a myth, that shouldn’t draw attention away from the thousands of people who develop a heroin addiction every day. Regular heroin abuse can lead to tolerance, which means it will take more and more of the opiate to achieve the desired heroin high – making heroin overdose and death a constant risk.Understanding heroin addiction means knowing just how quickly the drug can overpower the body – taking over the core processes in the brain that control pleasure and discomfort. In non-scientific terms, it is important to understand and recognize the signs of heroin addiction so that you can help a loved one get the treatment they need before they fall deeper into that negative cycle.
Heroin Use in America
Heroin Detox
The first step in overcoming heroin addiction is drug detox – the process of cleansing the body of the harmful toxins found in heroin. There are two primary types of heroin detox – natural and medical. With natural detoxification from heroin, the individual goes “ cold turkey”, ceasing intake of the drug entirely and allow their body to readjust. This method can bring about very uncomfortable withdrawal symptoms that often lead to relapse. Those individuals who are fearful of heavy withdrawal symptoms may choose medical detox. The most common form of medical detox is methadone treatment for heroin addiction. Methadone is a synthetic opiate given in gradually smaller and smaller doses until the individual has overcome their heroin physical addiction. The main benefit of methadone detox is the reduced withdrawal symptoms during this particular type of detox treatment.
Heroin Addiction Treatment
Even with all the will power in the world, almost no person can break the cycle of heroin addiction on their own. Professional help, in the form of a heroin rehab program, is the best, most comprehensive form of heroin addiction treatment. Providing both medical care and psychological support and counseling, heroin addiction treatment programs help break the cycle of addiction while strengthening the individual in mind, body and spirit. Most heroin rehab treatment programs feature three core component: detox (treating the physical addiction to heroin) counseling (addressing the psychological dependence on the drug) and aftercare (helping cope with life after treatment). Although there are many unique variations of care throughout the United States, the most successful heroin treatment programs incorporate these practices as a means of ending heroin dependence.
Heroin Rehab Program Types
For those who are fortunate enough to come to terms with their heroin addictions, there are a number of different drug rehab program types at their disposal. Those who need to leave a destructive home environment can attend a residential heroin rehab center, while those who wish to gain support from family and friends during treatment may choose an outpatient heroin rehab and its additional freedoms. There are also a number of “niche” heroin addiction treatment programs now gaining popularity around the U.S., including holistic heroin rehab, women’s heroin rehab, teen heroin treatment and other programs that address the unique needs of certain types of people living with heroin addiction.
Morphine Drug Study
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2009
In making a Drug Study, the following elements must be present: Generic Name and the Brand name (not all brands, just the brand used by the patient), Action, Indication, Pregnancy Category, Drug Classification, and Contraindication, Adverse Effect, Drug interaction and Nursing Consideration/Intervention…. Most clinical instructors preferred this to be in a long bond paper in printed or handwritten with paper in landscape.
Morphine sulfate Pregnancy Category C, C-II controlled substance Drug class: Narcotic agonist analgesic Therapeutic actions Principal opium alkaloid; acts as agonist at specific opioid receptors in the CNS to produce analgesia, euphoria, sedation; the receptors mediating these effects are thought to be the same as those mediating the effects of endogenous opioids (enkephalins, endorphins). Indications · Relief of moderate to severe acute and chronic pain · Preoperative medication to sedate and allay apprehension, facilitate induction of anesthesia, and reduce anesthetic dosage · Analgesic adjunct during anesthesia
· Component of most preparations that are referred to as Brompton's cocktail or mixture, an oral alcoholic solution that is used for chronic severe pain, especially in terminal cancer patients · Intraspinal use with microinfusion devices for the relief of intractable pain · Unlabeled use: dyspnea associated with acute left ventricular failure and pulmonary edema Contraindications· Contraindicated with hypersensitivity to narcotics; diarrhea caused by poisoning until toxins are eliminated; during labor or delivery of a premature infant (may cross immature blood–brain barrier more readily); after biliary tract surgery or following surgical anastomosis; pregnancy; labor (respiratory depression in neonate; may prolong labor). Adverse effects Light-headedness, dizziness, sedation, euphoria, dysphoria, delirium, insomnia, agitation, anxiety, fear, hallucinations, disorientation, drowsiness, lethargy, impaired mental and physical performance, coma, mood changes, weakness, headache, tremor, convulsions, miosis, visual disturbances, suppression of cough reflex Facial flushing, peripheral circulatory collapse, tachycardia, bradycardia, arrhythmia, palpitations, chest wall rigidity, hypertension, hypotension, orthostatic hypotension, syncopePruritus, urticaria, laryngospasm, bronchospasm, edema Nausea, vomiting, dry mouth, anorexia, constipation, biliary tract spasm; increased colonic motility in patients with chronic ulcerative colitis Drug Interactions: Increased likelihood of respiratory depression, hypotension, profound sedation or coma in patients receiving barbiturate general anesthetics Nursing considerations· Caution patient not to chew or crush controlled-release preparations. Dilute and administer slowly IV to minimize likelihood of adverse effects.· Direct patient to lie down during IV administration.Provide narcotic antagonist, facilities for assisted or controlled respiration on standby during IV administration.· Use caution when injecting SC or IM into chilled areas or in patients with hypotension or in shock; impaired perfusion may delay absorption; with repeated doses, an excessive amount may be absorbed..........when circulation is restored. · Reassure patient about addiction liability; most patients who receive opiates for medical reasons do not develop dependence syndromes.
Morphine History
An opium-based elixir has been ascribed to alchemists of Byzantine times, but the specific formula was supposedly lost during the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople. Around 1522, Paracelsus made reference to an opium-based elixir which he called, ''laudanum'' from the Latin word ''laudare'' meaning "to praise." He described it as a potent pain killer, but recommended that it be used sparingly. In the late eighteenth century, after the British conquest of Bengal in 1757 gave the East India Company a direct interest in the opium trade, another opiate recipe called 'laudanum' became very popular among physicians and their patients.Morphine was discovered as the first active alkaloid extracted from the opium poppy plant in December 1804 in Paderborn by Friedrich Sertürner. The drug was first marketed to the general public by Sertürner and Company in 1817 as an analgesic, and also as a treatment for opium and alcohol addiction. Later it was found that morphine was more addictive than either alcohol or opium, and its extensive use during the American Civil War allegedly resulted in over 400,000 sufferers from the "soldier's disease" of morphine addiction. This idea has been a subject of controversy, as there have been suggestions that such a disease was in fact a fabrication; the first documented use of the phrase "soldier's disease" was in 1915.Diacetylmorphine (better known as heroin) was synthesized from morphine in 1874 and brought to market by Bayer in 1898. Heroin is approximately 1.5–2 times more potent than morphine on a milligram-for-milligram basis. Using a variety of subjective and objective measures, one study estimated the relative potency of heroin to morphineadministered intravenously to post-addicts to be 1.80–2.66 mg of morphine sulfate to 1 mg of diamorphine hydrochloride (heroin). Morphine became a controlled substance in the US under the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act of 1914, and possession without a prescription in the US is a criminal offense.Morphine was the most commonly abused narcotic analgesic in the world until heroin was synthesized and came into use. Until the synthesis of dihydromorphine (ca. 1900), the dihydromorphinone class of opioids (1920s), and oxycodone (1916) and similar drugs, there generally were no other drugs in the same efficacy range as opium, morphine, and heroin, with synthetics still several years away (pethidine was invented in Germany in 1937) and opioid agonists amongst the semi-synthetics were analogues and derivatives of codeine such as dihydrocodeine (Paracodin), ethylmorphine (Dionine), and benzylmorphine (Peronine). Even today, morphine is the most sought after prescription narcotic by heroin addicts when heroin is scarce, all other things being equal; local conditions and user preference may cause hydromorphone, oxymorphone, high-dose oxycodone, or methadone as well as dextromoramide in specific instances such as 1970s Australia, to top that particular list. The stop-gap drugs used by the largest absolute number of heroin addicts is probably codeine, with significant use also ofdihydrocodeine, poppy straw derivatives like poppy pod and poppy seed tea, propoxyphene, and tramadol. The structural formula of morphine was determined by 1925. At least three methods of total synthesis of morphine from starting materials such as coal tar and petroleum distillates have been patented, the first of which was announced in 1952, by Dr. Marshall D. Gates, Jr. at the University of Rochester. Still, the vast majority of morphine is derived from the opium poppy by either the traditional method of gathering latex from the scored, unripe pods of the poppy, or processes using poppy straw, the dried pods and stems of the plantIn 2003, there was discovery of endogenous morphine occurring naturally in the human body. apparently only reacted to morphine: the mu3 opiate receptor in human tissue. Human cells that form in reaction to cancerous neuroblastoma cells have been found to contain trace amounts of endogenous morphine.
Learn About Heroin Use, Abuse, and Treatment
Heroin is one of the most dangerous drugs in the world. Few drugs carry with them so many potential hazards for the user – psychological, physical and social in equal measure. Yet little is known about this addictive opiate outside of the treatment community. The information contained in this site is designed to shed light on the nature of heroin addiction, explore drug treatment options for heroin dependence as well as discuss important processes such as heroin detoxification, making it through heroin withdrawal and aftercare. If you or someone you love is suffering from a heroin drug addiction, the life-saving information you need may just well be found within the pages of this heroin website.
Photographing a Heroin Addict through Despair, Horror and Hope
by GRETA RYBU S on SEPTEMBER 7, 2012 · 6 COMMENTS
Heroin Addiction
Although the urban legend that all heroin users become addicted after trying the drug just once is just a myth, that shouldn’t draw attention away from the thousands of people who develop a heroin addiction every day. Regular heroin abuse can lead to tolerance, which means it will take more and more of the opiate to achieve the desired heroin high – making heroin overdose and death a constant risk.Understanding heroin addiction means knowing just how quickly the drug can overpower the body – taking over the core processes in the brain that control pleasure and discomfort. In non-scientific terms, it is important to understand and recognize the signs of heroin addiction so that you can help a loved one get the treatment they need before they fall deeper into that negative cycle.
Heroin Use in America
Heroin Detox
The first step in overcoming heroin addiction is drug detox – the process of cleansing the body of the harmful toxins found in heroin. There are two primary types of heroin detox – natural and medical. With natural detoxification from heroin, the individual goes “ cold turkey”, ceasing intake of the drug entirely and allow their body to readjust. This method can bring about very uncomfortable withdrawal symptoms that often lead to relapse. Those individuals who are fearful of heavy withdrawal symptoms may choose medical detox. The most common form of medical detox is methadone treatment for heroin addiction. Methadone is a synthetic opiate given in gradually smaller and smaller doses until the individual has overcome their heroin physical addiction. The main benefit of methadone detox is the reduced withdrawal symptoms during this particular type of detox treatment.
Heroin Addiction Treatment
Even with all the will power in the world, almost no person can break the cycle of heroin addiction on their own. Professional help, in the form of a heroin rehab program, is the best, most comprehensive form of heroin addiction treatment. Providing both medical care and psychological support and counseling, heroin addiction treatment programs help break the cycle of addiction while strengthening the individual in mind, body and spirit. Most heroin rehab treatment programs feature three core component: detox (treating the physical addiction to heroin) counseling (addressing the psychological dependence on the drug) and aftercare (helping cope with life after treatment). Although there are many unique variations of care throughout the United States, the most successful heroin treatment programs incorporate these practices as a means of ending heroin dependence.
Heroin Rehab Program Types
For those who are fortunate enough to come to terms with their heroin addictions, there are a number of different drug rehab program types at their disposal. Those who need to leave a destructive home environment can attend a residential heroin rehab center, while those who wish to gain support from family and friends during treatment may choose an outpatient heroin rehab and its additional freedoms. There are also a number of “niche” heroin addiction treatment programs now gaining popularity around the U.S., including holistic heroin rehab, women’s heroin rehab, teen heroin treatment and other programs that address the unique needs of certain types of people living with heroin addiction.
