facts were important, of course, to Dole and Nyswander, but were
completely crucial in their long battle
to get government to go along with the idea of methadone maintenance. Government reflects Americans practical tendency as well
as its moralistic, judgmental tendency, and in this case the practical
tendency can out on top. Government
allowed itself to care about the fact that methadone patients are far
more cost effective for society than are heroin addicts.
There was an intention to cut costs, reduce crime, maybe to help
people. Methadone
maintenance had been surprisingly effective in doing those things.
But the main point in Dole and Nyswanders thinking always
appeared to be that heroin addiction is a medical disorder and that
methadone is a use supplement to a biological deficiency (Dole &
Nyswander, 1967; Dole & Nyswander, 1965; Dole, Nyswander & Kreek,
1966).
In
reality, methadone treatment is barely tolerated by government. The main
reason being that in out society people who are on drugs are
considered morally inferior to others.
Due to the AIDS epidemic methadone treatment has been given a
temporary bit of breathing space. Still
it is difficult to gain access to methadone maintenance. Staying in
treatment is much, much harder than getting into treatment. The
regulations and restrictions relating to methadone maintenance are so
numerous that it is amazing that anyone can make it work.
- DOLOPHINE WAS NAMED
- AFTER ADOLF HITLER
Dolophine
is the name under which Eli Lilly Company markets methadone. When methadone was first used for maintenance treatment of
heroin addiction, Dolophine was the common brand name of methadone.
It was dispensed as a wafer.
Certain problems became apparent in the use of the wafers.
It is quite difficult to dispense small increases or decreases in
milligrams of methadone.
For
this and other reasons, when methadone became available in a stable
liquid suspension (Methadose), most clinics dropped Dolophine and went
to it. Dolophine is
practically history now. Some
younger methadone patients and staff may have never heard of it, much
less the myth about its having been named for Adolf Hitler.
The connection, by the way, is that the Dolph- of Dolophine
is supposed to be the dolf of Adolf.
A
minor myth about methadone is that Methadose is not real methadone. All methadone is the same chemical. Methadose is just a brand name. (Footnote
#1)
The
Germans invested in methadone during the second world war when their
supplies of opium were cut off. (Footnote
#2)
During war the Germans of course needed more painkillers than usual, so
they got to work synthesizing opioids.
Meperidine, its brand name is Demerol, was another analgesic they
invented, along with several hundred others that didnt become famous.
Youll
notice that there
are no myths about Demerols having been named for Nazis.
The reason methadone unlucked-out has to do with the fact
that methadone did emerge as a maintenance treatment for heroin addicts.
In
short, the myth is that since Adolf was a bad person who wanted to
control people and was against freedom of choice, they gave his
name to a bad drug used to control people.
The
myth is colorful and just happens to tie in with the prejudice against
methadone, but what is the truth about Dolophine?
In Latin dolor means pain, suffering.
In English (look it up in an unabridged dictionary) the dol means
a unit in pain measurement and there are such words as dolorimetry.
The dol in Dolophine was from dol, dolor (Goldstein, 1992).
The
-phine in Dolophine comes from morphine, which was from Morphin,
which was its German trademark name from the early 1800s.
Morphin came from Morpheus, the god of dreams of mythology, who
was a son of Hypnos, who later begat hypnosis.
The
Germans also invented heroin, which English word came from the German
trademark, Heroisch, from their word meaning heroic.
The German pharmaceutical company that manufactured heroin was
named Bayer of aspirin fame.
Heroins
chemical name is diacetylmorphine, sometimes shortened to diamorphine.
After morphine and heroin, and before methadone and Meperidine
(Demerol), the Germans also invested the all-time painkiller, which we
still know by the German trademark name, Aspirin!
- METHADONE IS ADDICTING
It
is not substances which addict, it is people who addict themselves to
various feelings and experiences. Some
of these feelings and experiences are produced by substances.
1.
Methadone
is not a brand name, it is the generic.
This is another myth that many respected professionals have
believed.
2.
Methadone was synthesized by
Max Bockmhl and Gustav Ehrhart at I.G. Farbenindustrie. They named it
Hoechst 10820 or polamidon. Basically they were searching for an
analgesic with a low addiction properties. The patent for methadone was
not applied for until 1941 and only reasech was undertaken during this
period until World War 2 was over. After the war the US controlled
Hoechst the town where I.G. Farbenindustrie was located. Since the US
took control of any German patents methadone became a spoil of the war
along with many other substances. (See Methadone and Congeners
in Education Series 5.2, The Pharmacology
of Opioids, Basic Pharmacology: How Methadone Works?)