Heroin, also called diacetyl morphine or diamorphine, is a simple derivative of morphine made by heating morphine with acetic acid. The German pharmacologist Heinrich Dreser did the pioneering clinical research at Friedrich Bayer and Co., which introduced in commercially in 1898.
Dreser found heroin to be a highly effective medication in the treatment of coughs, chest pains, and the discomfort of tuberculosis. This effect was important because pneumonia and tuberculosis were the two leading causes of death at that time, prior to the discovery of antibiotics.
Dreser recommended heroin to doctors on the grounds that it was stronger than morphine and safer than codeine. Because of its great potential, he derived his name for the new drug from the German word for `heroic.'
Heroin is about two or three times as strong as morphine, apparently because it crosses the membrane between the blood and brain more quickly. The strength of a drug is sometimes offered as evidence that it is dangerous, but in fact the strength indicates nothing more than the amount required to produce a particular effect. It takes about twice as much morphine as heroin to produce the same effects, but the maximum effects are essentially the same. In fact, heroin is reconverted to morphine before it binds to brain tissue, and therefore the effects of the two drugs are theoretically identical in equivalent doses.
Although the important reactions to morphine and heroin are the same, the withdrawal following experimental addictions to morphine are somewhat more prolonged. Some experienced users cannot distinguish the effects of intravenous injections of the two drugs in the laboratory, and most find both acceptable for regular use. Other users, however, can distinguish the two drugs and claim to have a strong preference for one or the other.
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