Big Pharma's Secret History
Abookamongstthemany
Posts: 8,209
The secret history of Big Pharma's role in creating and marketing heroin, LSD, meth, Ecstasy and speed
http://www.newstarget.com/021768.html
Most consumers think that street drugs are in an entirely different class than prescription drugs, and they believe that pharmaceutical companies would never manufacture or sell street drugs. But guess what? As you'll read here, drug companies actually invented many of the street drugs now considered to be the most devastating, including heroin and meth ("ice").
Here are seven facts you probably never knew about the connection between street drugs and pharmaceutical companies:
1. Heroin was launched as a medicine by Felix Hoffman, an employee of Bayer, only a few days after he invented aspirin. Bayer immediately applied for a trademark on the term "heroin," then began marketing the drug as a cure for morphine addiction. It was also marketed as cough syrup for children.
2. Parke-Davis, a subsidiary of Pfizer, promoted and sold cocaine. It even produced a "cocaine injection kit" complete with a syringe for shooting up. Skeptical? You can view the picture yourself by clicking http://www.NewsTarget.com/gallery/articles/ParkeDavisInjection.jpg
3. A subsidiary of Novartis, Sandoz Laboratories, introduced the world to LSD in 1938, marketing it as a psychiatric drug named Delysid. This same drug company also created saccharin, the artificial chemical sweetener
4. Drug giant Merck pioneered the commercial manufacture of morphine from opium and was a heavy pusher and marketer of cocaine. Merck also patented MDMA (Ecstasy, the rave drug). After World War II, Merck also began producing pesticides and food preservatives.
5. Ritalin is "speed" for children. A chemical amphetamine, Ritalin is made of controlled substances that would land you in prison if you sold them to a kid on the street, yet the drug is currently prescribed to millions of schoolchildren in the United States to treat a "brain chemistry condition" that was invented by the drug companies.
6. In the 1930's, drug companies marketed amphetamines as over-the-counter inhaler medicines for treating nasal congestion. Tablet amphetamines were also widely available in tablet form and frequently abused by students, truck drivers and other groups.
7. Meth was originally synthesized by chemists and later refined by drug companies. During WWII, "meth" was actually prescribed to soldiers by the U.S., Germany and Japan. Even Hitler was known as a "meth head" by his own staff. By the end of the war, millions of military personnel were addicted to the drug.
Today, meth ("crank") is made from ingredients found in over-the-counter cold medicines. While a meth epidemic sweeps America, destroying entire communities and even threatening some states (Hawaii in particular), drug companies insist their cold medicines should remain over the counter and not be classified as controlled substances. There is currently no legislative effort whatsoever to ban over-the-counter cold medicines containing the chemicals used to create meth.
Also related: Coca-Cola really did contain cocaine during its first few decades on the market (it also contained kola nut extract, hence the name). Cocaine was later removed from the formula and replaced with caffeine, a substance that is similarly addictive and serves much the same purpose.
Once you realize the connection between street drugs and prescription drugs, it's easy to figure out why Big Pharma is such a strong supporter of the Partnership For A Drug-Free America -- because they don't want consumers getting their drugs from street dealers, they want people buying their drugs from drug companies! Drug companies' attempts to outlaw street drugs are little more than a way of eliminating the competition and monopolizing the drug market.
Ultimately, Big Pharma is just another drug pushing cartel that has the same goals as any drug dealer: Convince customers they need your drug, get them hooked on it, and eliminate the competition.
The only difference is that Big Pharma has been so successful at dealing drugs that it has enough funds to buy off Congress, the Food and Drug Administration and practically the entire psychiatric industry (not to mention medical schools and mainstream media outlets).
Today, more than 40 percent of the U.S. population ingests FDA-approved synthetic chemicals manufactured and marketed by drug companies.
Drug companies think this number is too low. Their goal is to have 100 percent of the U.S. population taking not just one drug per day, but multiple drugs every day, for life.
http://www.newstarget.com/021768.html
Most consumers think that street drugs are in an entirely different class than prescription drugs, and they believe that pharmaceutical companies would never manufacture or sell street drugs. But guess what? As you'll read here, drug companies actually invented many of the street drugs now considered to be the most devastating, including heroin and meth ("ice").
Here are seven facts you probably never knew about the connection between street drugs and pharmaceutical companies:
1. Heroin was launched as a medicine by Felix Hoffman, an employee of Bayer, only a few days after he invented aspirin. Bayer immediately applied for a trademark on the term "heroin," then began marketing the drug as a cure for morphine addiction. It was also marketed as cough syrup for children.
2. Parke-Davis, a subsidiary of Pfizer, promoted and sold cocaine. It even produced a "cocaine injection kit" complete with a syringe for shooting up. Skeptical? You can view the picture yourself by clicking http://www.NewsTarget.com/gallery/articles/ParkeDavisInjection.jpg
3. A subsidiary of Novartis, Sandoz Laboratories, introduced the world to LSD in 1938, marketing it as a psychiatric drug named Delysid. This same drug company also created saccharin, the artificial chemical sweetener
4. Drug giant Merck pioneered the commercial manufacture of morphine from opium and was a heavy pusher and marketer of cocaine. Merck also patented MDMA (Ecstasy, the rave drug). After World War II, Merck also began producing pesticides and food preservatives.
5. Ritalin is "speed" for children. A chemical amphetamine, Ritalin is made of controlled substances that would land you in prison if you sold them to a kid on the street, yet the drug is currently prescribed to millions of schoolchildren in the United States to treat a "brain chemistry condition" that was invented by the drug companies.
6. In the 1930's, drug companies marketed amphetamines as over-the-counter inhaler medicines for treating nasal congestion. Tablet amphetamines were also widely available in tablet form and frequently abused by students, truck drivers and other groups.
7. Meth was originally synthesized by chemists and later refined by drug companies. During WWII, "meth" was actually prescribed to soldiers by the U.S., Germany and Japan. Even Hitler was known as a "meth head" by his own staff. By the end of the war, millions of military personnel were addicted to the drug.
Today, meth ("crank") is made from ingredients found in over-the-counter cold medicines. While a meth epidemic sweeps America, destroying entire communities and even threatening some states (Hawaii in particular), drug companies insist their cold medicines should remain over the counter and not be classified as controlled substances. There is currently no legislative effort whatsoever to ban over-the-counter cold medicines containing the chemicals used to create meth.
Also related: Coca-Cola really did contain cocaine during its first few decades on the market (it also contained kola nut extract, hence the name). Cocaine was later removed from the formula and replaced with caffeine, a substance that is similarly addictive and serves much the same purpose.
Once you realize the connection between street drugs and prescription drugs, it's easy to figure out why Big Pharma is such a strong supporter of the Partnership For A Drug-Free America -- because they don't want consumers getting their drugs from street dealers, they want people buying their drugs from drug companies! Drug companies' attempts to outlaw street drugs are little more than a way of eliminating the competition and monopolizing the drug market.
Ultimately, Big Pharma is just another drug pushing cartel that has the same goals as any drug dealer: Convince customers they need your drug, get them hooked on it, and eliminate the competition.
The only difference is that Big Pharma has been so successful at dealing drugs that it has enough funds to buy off Congress, the Food and Drug Administration and practically the entire psychiatric industry (not to mention medical schools and mainstream media outlets).
Today, more than 40 percent of the U.S. population ingests FDA-approved synthetic chemicals manufactured and marketed by drug companies.
Drug companies think this number is too low. Their goal is to have 100 percent of the U.S. population taking not just one drug per day, but multiple drugs every day, for life.
If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you.
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
-Oscar Wilde
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
-Oscar Wilde
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Comments
I don't have a lot of love for big pharma...but they have a piss poor business model...create something and then have it become illegal so you can't make money off of it. They really aren't eliminating the competition they are eliminating the possibility of legal competition b/c their former product is illegal. It's unfortunate that this article presents a lot of good information but feels forced to include the fear inducing rhetoric...
"convince customers they need your drug, get them hooked on it, and eliminate the competition." generics pretty much ensure competition
"Their goal is to have 100 percent of the U.S. population taking not just one drug per day, but multiple drugs every day, for life." this could also be the goal of every supplement shop in America...just substitute supplement/ vitamin for drug.
"There is currently no legislative effort whatsoever to ban over-the-counter cold medicines containing the chemicals used to create meth."...to ban NO...but there are new laws that limit consumption and purchasing amounts/time.
It is their discretion, not law!!!!
It is my life and body!!! I am of sound mind and as long as they give me all the info, I can make that informed decison on my own.
Blah... i heard a report today that in Ca., I think, that they are trying to legislate just what i believe. But, some religious guy is pushing a campaign to stop it. Hey, go preach in the churches and stay out of medicine and my life!!!
I miss kervorkian!
This link is worth the time to read.
Disclaimer: I'm in no way advocating the manufacture of any illegal substances. This link is for reference purposes, only.
yeah, that's plausible. becos if they legalized heroin, they couldn't produce and sell heroin and make money off that too?
Seriously? Heroin?? Can you imagine all the lawsuits? That shit fucks people up badly. The FDA would have to look like maniacs to approve it knowing what we know now.
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
-Oscar Wilde
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/ff/Bayer_Heroin_bottle.jpg/409px-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heroin#History
However, as is often the case with scientific discovery, Wright's invention did not lead to any further developments, and heroin's fame would only begin to grow after it was independently re-synthesized 23 years later by another chemist, Felix Hoffmann. Hoffmann was working at the Bayer pharmaceutical company in Elberfeld, Germany, where the head of his laboratory was Heinrich Dreser. Dreser instructed Hoffmann to acetylate morphine, with the objective of producing codeine, a natural derivative of the opium poppy, similar to morphine but less potent and held to be less addictive. But instead of producing codeine, the experiment produced a substance that was actually three times more potent than morphine. Bayer would name the substance "heroin", probably from the word heroisch, German for heroic, because in field studies people using the medicine felt "heroic".[6]
From 1898 through to 1910 heroin was marketed as a non-addictive morphine substitute and cough medicine for children. Bayer marketed heroin as a cure for morphine addiction before it was discovered that heroin is converted to morphine when metabolized in the liver. The company was somewhat embarrassed by this new finding and it became a historical blunder for Bayer.[7]
In the United States the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act was passed in 1914 to control the sale and distribution of heroin. The law did allow heroin to be prescribed and sold for medical purposes. In particular, addicts could often still be legally supplied with heroin. In 1924, the United States Congress passed additional legislation banning the sale, importation or manufacture of heroin in the United States. It is now a Schedule I substance, and is thus illegal.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrison_Narcotics_Tax_Act
The Harrison Narcotics Tax Act (ch. 1, 38 Stat. 785) was a United States federal law that regulated and taxed the production, importation, distribution and use of opiates. The act was proposed by Representative Cynthia Hicks of New York and was approved on December 17, 1914.[1]
"An Act To provide for the registration of, with collectors of internal revenue, and to impose a special tax on all persons who produce, import, manufacture, compound, deal in, dispense, sell, distribute, or give away opium or coca leaves, their salts, derivatives, or preparations, and for other purposes."
he had a voice that was strong and loud and
i swallowed his facade cos i'm so
eager to identify with
someone above the crowd
someone who seemed to feel the same
someone prepared to lead the way
By 1899, Bayer was producing about a ton of heroin a year, and exporting the drug to 23 countries. The country where it really took off was the US, where there was already a large population of morphine addicts, a craze for patent medicines, and a relatively lax regulatory framework. Manufacturers of cough syrup were soon lacing their products with Bayer heroin.
There were heroin pastilles, heroin cough lozenges, heroin tablets, water-soluble heroin salts and a heroin elixir in a glycerine solution. Bayer never advertised heroin to the public but the publicity material it sent to physicians was unambiguous. One flyer described the product thus: "Heroin: the Sedative for Coughs . . . order a supply from your jobber."
"It possesses many advantages over morphine," wrote the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal in 1900. "It's not hypnotic, and there's no danger of acquiring a habit."
In 1913, Bayer decided to stop making heroin. There had been an explosion of heroinrelated admissions at New York and Philadelphia hospitals, and in East Coast cities a substantial population of recreational users was reported (some supported their habits by collecting and selling scrap metal, hence the name "junkie"). Prohibition seemed inevitable and, sure enough, the next year the use of heroin without prescription was outlawed in the US. (A court ruling in 1919 also determined it illegal for doctors to prescribe it to addicts.)
he had a voice that was strong and loud and
i swallowed his facade cos i'm so
eager to identify with
someone above the crowd
someone who seemed to feel the same
someone prepared to lead the way
Wow and here I was saying they quit making it because of the ill effects and the bad PR that would follow, when no, it's about avoiding taxes!
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
-Oscar Wilde
that must have been one kickass convention......;)
so which are you arguing here? heroin shouldnt be illegal but it is becos the big bad evil pharma companies dont want competition? or heroin should be illegal becos it's a product of the big bad evil pharma companies?
you're not making sense. there's no logic to this post aside from more "evil corporations" nonsense rhetoric. the points are contradictory. it's a sign of evil the heroin is illegal, but it's crazy for it to be legal. dont be ridiculous.
and when was the last time liquor companies got sued over a student dying on his 21st or someone ending up in aa? why would legal heroin be any different?
im not following your logic here. heroin was an evil thing invented by evil people. then they were SO evil they wouldnt sell it anymore becos it was being taxed. now they're so evil they outlaw it so there's less competition? in their spare time do they kick puppies or something? are they responsible for pedophilia too?
http://www.healthranger.org/
Used to have a joke with one of my friends concerning pharmaceutical drugs. We'd much rather get ours from big pharma opposed to a street dealer. Quality control baby, quality control!!!!!!!!!!!!
but the illusion of knowledge.
~Daniel Boorstin
Only a life lived for others is worth living.
~Albert Einstein
ha ha, i liked how he posted his laboratory stats. He has a good-looking lipid profile!
but the illusion of knowledge.
~Daniel Boorstin
Only a life lived for others is worth living.
~Albert Einstein
Neither is true. Heroin production in this country was stopped for 2 major reasons: World War I which largely disrupted the supply of Opium and the 1924 Heroin Act which made its production and sale illegal.
I'm not sure what "evil" you're trying to find here. Heroin, cocaine and morphine were once widely used by corporations, governments and in the medical profession for all sorts of things we would now cringe about.
Yeah...I really want to know what a "BioPhotonic scanner score" is.
This is my favorite part:
"I used to visit doctors and follow their advice, and I used to eat anything I wanted: sodas, pizza, donuts, milk, hamburgers... you name it."
Where can I get advice like that?
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Hehe...nice.
So what is the difference between using morphine opposed to heroin in a clinical setting, ie, pain management? They still used opiate derivatives in cough syrups, ie hydrocodone & codeine. What is causing you to cringe exactly?
but the illusion of knowledge.
~Daniel Boorstin
Only a life lived for others is worth living.
~Albert Einstein
Tradition is the difference, as far as I understand it. Morphine was a more acceptable and known quantity at the time. Heroin was grouped in with cocaine and other substances that were believed to have little medical value and posed more of a "danger" to society.
I easily cringe at the use of cocaine in Coca-cola, the use of heroin in psychological "treatments"....just examples of people using substances and drugs without understanding the consequences.
the original post was a ridiculous propaganda piece. the foxnews of the left. it says pharma companies are so evil and business smart, they invented a horrible drug like heroin, then promptly tried to get it outlawed so as to eliminate competition (which makes no sense becos until it was outlawed there was no competition!). the article is so distorted and conclusory that you'd be a fool to take it seriously. he started writing this with the agenda that pharmas are evil (so buy my books and videos instead) and then dug up a very small and select handful of facts, distorted a few others, and strung them together in a nonsensical and contradictory manner to make a nice sounding article that digs at his competitors and is a pretty effective sales pitch... if you're one of the people who thinks michael moore and loose change are objective information sources.
you're so square... you know you wanna have some couples therapy with mdma
though the cia using lsd in interrogation is a scary thought... that would be one bad trip.
I think you missed the point of Baraka's post. What you are basically saying it is alright for government regulation (hell just froze over) of illicit drugs, as long as doctors and pharmacueticals are running the show.
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except by express written permission of ©gue_barium, the author.
Unless it was Bush, Rumsfeld and Co. being interrogated. I fantasize about that, that would make some good primetime TV.
all posts by ©gue_barium are protected under US copyright law and are not to be reproduced, exchanged or sold
except by express written permission of ©gue_barium, the author.
if you think this is what ffg is saying, then maybe you've never read a post by ffg before
I'm not saying it's all right for government regulation. I think the production and sale of drugs should be completely free of all regulation. If Pfizer wants to make and sell heroin, what do I care? If you want to make Meth in your basement and kill yourself with it, I think that's your right.
I was simply answering the question of why heroin and morphine were treated somewhat differently in the regulatory environment 100 years ago.
im not sure it would make a difference for them. im pretty sure they've been on lsd for 7 straight years now. it's the only way to explain his policies.
oh man. lol...i dunno, maybe lsd has some flashback policies of it's own.
all posts by ©gue_barium are protected under US copyright law and are not to be reproduced, exchanged or sold
except by express written permission of ©gue_barium, the author.