1898: Bayer mass markets heroin as cough suppressantHere are a couple of pictures:
Stranger and stranger these things might be. Bayer trademarked "heroin" in 1898 as a non-addictive substitute for morphine, and marketed it alongside it's other trademarked product, "aspirin," as a remedy to be used in the home by consumers. Heroin was actually accepted as a safe remedy for children as a cough suppressant. Bayer quit making heroin (as you can imagine, in a very pure form for public consumption) in 1910, after they determined the addictive properties of the narcotic were more than they had originally determined. The US government outlawed the production of heroin in 1924.
its not just that they marketed a different opiate for morphine addiction, heroin IS morphine, its just faster acting and quickly metabolizes into morphine
Posted by: matt at October 27, 2009 11:53 AM