Is it true that the drug heroin was once marketed to families? Yes! In the 1890’s, heroin, a substitute for morphine, was hailed as a tremendous help to patients with tuberculosis, a leading cause of death at the time. Heroin eased the terrible suffering of tuberculosis by suppressing the respiratory system and thus the painful coughing fits associated with the disease. Nineteenth-century German doctors used the term heroisch (“heroic”) to describe powerful drugs, and the German company that would later make Bayer aspirin dubbed this promising new drug Heroin. Before the drug’s addictive nature and damaging effects were known, heroin was marketed specifically for children, resulting in some rather astonishing Spanish-language ads. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Naming Heroin”
You’re listening to A Way with Words. I’m Grant Barrett.
And I’m Martha Barnette.
We had an email from a listener recently asking if there’s any connection between the word hero and the drug heroin.
And there sure is. And boy, is it an interesting story, Grant.
Heroin was originally developed in Europe in the 1890s as a substitute for morphine.
And heroin was marketed at the time as a cough suppressant, among other things.
Yeah, it was really amazing.
And this was before anybody realized that it was addictive, and people treated heroin as this major medical breakthrough.
This was because at the time, tuberculosis and pneumonia were among the leading causes of death, and patients would have these awful, prolonged, debilitating coughing episodes.
And heroin acted as a depressant on the respiratory system, and it helped alleviate the suffering of very sick people.
It was originally marketed by what is now the Bayer Company, as in Bayer Aspirin, manufactured in Germany.
And as for the name of the drug, German doctors of the time sometimes applied the term heroish, like our term heroic, to extremely powerful drugs.
And it also made you feel, you know, kind of heroic when you took it.
So it’s not surprising that Bayer initially called the drug heroin in Germany.
And you can see photos of commercial heroin bottles and ads for heroin cough syrups, heroin lozenges, and even cough syrups for kids.
With heroin?
Online. It’s astonishing.
Wow.
This only went on for a few years.
Bayer stopped making heroin in 1914 as people began to see the results of heroin addiction.
But for a while, doctors were still reluctant to give it up.
I found a passage from the Kentucky Medical Journal where a doctor wrote, I feel that bringing charges against heroin is almost like questioning the fidelity of a good friend.
I’ve used it with good results.
So it’s really…
Wow.
Maybe he meant it on himself.
But that sounds a little bit like some of the people that have come out in favor of tobacco.
Also from Kentucky.
Wow, that’s an incredible story.
Yeah, yeah.
And you can see these photos online.
We’ll link to them from our website, waywordradio.org.
877-929-9673.
Words@waywordradio.org.
