Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Make the pain go away

Stevie, McCain, market melt-down . . . my head hurts. Strong medicine is called for.

Found a nice site out of Lewis County, Washington, called the Lewis County Buzz which has an article about a questionable campaign contribution from somebody who used to work for Bayer. Anyway, the article provides some interesting history.

Using the tradename "Heroin" — because early testers said it made them feel heroisch (heroic) — Bayer sold this popular drug by the truckload starting in 1898. Free samples were sent to thousands of doctors; studies appeared in medical journals.

The Sunday Times of London noted: "By 1899, Bayer was producing about a ton of heroin a year, and exporting the drug to 23 countries," including the US. Medicines containing smack were available over-the-counter at drug stores, just as aspirin is today. The American Medical Association gave heroin its stamp of approval in 1907.

But reports of addiction, which had already started appearing in 1899, turned into a torrent after several years. Bayer had wisely released aspirin the year after heroin, and this new non-addictive painkiller and anti-inflammatory was well on its way to becoming the most popular drug ever. ever notice how everyone loses their sense of humor around election time?

In 1913, Bayer got out of the heroin business.

Wikipedia also has a detailed history, worth the read.

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