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Letters

Heroin history

G. Frank O. Tyers
CMAJ February 05, 2018 190 (5) E144; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.733520
G. Frank O. Tyers
Clinician, Vancouver Coastal Health, Vancouver, BC
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This letter is in response to the article by Lucas Richert in CMAJ.1 In the 1890s, diacetylmorphine was resynthesized at Bayer and then for almost 20 years, it was marketed as heroin, a safe and nonaddicting substitute for morphine. I first learned this while reading Goodman and Gilman’s “The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics”2 in 1959 while I was a medical student at the University of British Columbia; this led to a repeatedly reaffirmed life-long skepticism of claims made by drug companies.

Because heroin generally has fewer adverse effects than morphine, however, legalization for end-of-life use in patients with intractable pain would be a useful addition to our limited armamentarium. Apart from lessening suffering, it could allow some patients to delay or avoid assisted suicide. Because heroin and fentanyl are already easily available on the street, there is no risk of worsening law enforcement or mortality issues related to illicit drug use.

Footnotes

  • Competing interests: None declared.

References

  1. ↵
    1. Richert L
    . Heroin in the hospice: opioids and end-of-life discussions in the 1980s. CMAJ 2017; 189:1231–2.
    OpenUrl
  2. ↵
    1. Goodman LS,
    2. Gilman A
    . The pharmacological basis of therapeutics: a textbook of pharmacology, toxicology, and therapeutics for physicians and medical students. 1st ed. New York: Macmillan Publishing; 1941.
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Canadian Medical Association Journal: 190 (5)
CMAJ
Vol. 190, Issue 5
5 Feb 2018
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Heroin history
G. Frank O. Tyers
CMAJ Feb 2018, 190 (5) E144; DOI: 10.1503/cmaj.733520

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Heroin history
G. Frank O. Tyers
CMAJ Feb 2018, 190 (5) E144; DOI: 10.1503/cmaj.733520
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