darvocet21
Bluelighter
- Joined
- May 31, 2021
- Messages
- 25,809
It's not as surprising as you might think.
Coca-Cola:
In 1886 Civil War veteran John Pemberton created his mix of cocaine and kola nut extract to ease morphine withdrawal.
Morphinism, as it was then called, had afflicted an est. 400,000 veterans by the end of the war in 1865, though it is not known if Pemberton was among them. However by 1886 the average veteran was over 40, and as addicts get older they become more willing to quit. Pemberton no doubt knew about this personally or from fellow vets.
(Noteworthy: during the 1800s people addicted to morphine were not persecuted or discriminated against and the drug was available without a prescription, although morphinism was widely viewed as a moral failing.)
Dr. Freud:
As a young doctor in the 1880s, Freud was so enthusiastic about cocaine he wrote "On Coca," which he called "a song of praise to this miracle substance" specifically admiring its ability to loosen the tongue, which may have led to his later idea of free association by patients undergoing psychoanalysis. He shared cocaine widely with friends and colleagues, his preferred method of administering the drug was to dissolve it in water and drink it.
He later proposed and tested cocaine as a cure for morphinism. When he gave it to close friend Ernst von Fleischl-Marxow to wean him from his morphine addiction and relieve chronic pain, it worked. In fact it worked too well: his friend became a cocaine addict. Freud was probably addicted himself, he was certainly using the drug up to the period that included the writing his first and most influential book: On the Interpretation of Dreams
20th C. mystery. If coke why not speed?
Less is known about the relative success of attempting to use amphetamines for opioid withdrawal. A 10-minute search turned up few references: a piece published by a rehabilitation center that dismissed the idea and another which surveyed addicts about the effectiveness of non-opioid drugs of abuse in alleviating opioid withdrawals. Only benzodiazepines, tricyclic antidepressants (eg amitriptyline) and alcohol were considered helpful, and only by about half of respondents. The article continued:
"A worsening of opioid withdrawal was reported by 62% of the patients for cocaine, 62% for amphetamine, 50% for caffeine, 37.5% for cannabis, 27% for nicotine, 26% for alcohol, 8% for tricyclic antidepressants and 3% for benzodiazepines."
Summary:
The usefulness of cocaine in alleviating withdrawal from opioids did not translate into similar attempts with amphetamines and their derivatives, possibly due to the experience with precipitating cocaine addiction, although also likely due to reluctance to promote one addictive substance as a cure for another (despite distinct qualitative differences between the two types of habituation)
PLEASE SHARE YOUR EXPERIENCE USING STIMULANTS TO HELP WITH OPIOID WITHDRAWALS (VOLUNTARY OR INVOLUNTARY), THE GOOD, BAD & UGLY!
Coca-Cola:
In 1886 Civil War veteran John Pemberton created his mix of cocaine and kola nut extract to ease morphine withdrawal.
Morphinism, as it was then called, had afflicted an est. 400,000 veterans by the end of the war in 1865, though it is not known if Pemberton was among them. However by 1886 the average veteran was over 40, and as addicts get older they become more willing to quit. Pemberton no doubt knew about this personally or from fellow vets.
(Noteworthy: during the 1800s people addicted to morphine were not persecuted or discriminated against and the drug was available without a prescription, although morphinism was widely viewed as a moral failing.)
Dr. Freud:
As a young doctor in the 1880s, Freud was so enthusiastic about cocaine he wrote "On Coca," which he called "a song of praise to this miracle substance" specifically admiring its ability to loosen the tongue, which may have led to his later idea of free association by patients undergoing psychoanalysis. He shared cocaine widely with friends and colleagues, his preferred method of administering the drug was to dissolve it in water and drink it.
He later proposed and tested cocaine as a cure for morphinism. When he gave it to close friend Ernst von Fleischl-Marxow to wean him from his morphine addiction and relieve chronic pain, it worked. In fact it worked too well: his friend became a cocaine addict. Freud was probably addicted himself, he was certainly using the drug up to the period that included the writing his first and most influential book: On the Interpretation of Dreams
20th C. mystery. If coke why not speed?
Less is known about the relative success of attempting to use amphetamines for opioid withdrawal. A 10-minute search turned up few references: a piece published by a rehabilitation center that dismissed the idea and another which surveyed addicts about the effectiveness of non-opioid drugs of abuse in alleviating opioid withdrawals. Only benzodiazepines, tricyclic antidepressants (eg amitriptyline) and alcohol were considered helpful, and only by about half of respondents. The article continued:
"A worsening of opioid withdrawal was reported by 62% of the patients for cocaine, 62% for amphetamine, 50% for caffeine, 37.5% for cannabis, 27% for nicotine, 26% for alcohol, 8% for tricyclic antidepressants and 3% for benzodiazepines."
Summary:
The usefulness of cocaine in alleviating withdrawal from opioids did not translate into similar attempts with amphetamines and their derivatives, possibly due to the experience with precipitating cocaine addiction, although also likely due to reluctance to promote one addictive substance as a cure for another (despite distinct qualitative differences between the two types of habituation)
PLEASE SHARE YOUR EXPERIENCE USING STIMULANTS TO HELP WITH OPIOID WITHDRAWALS (VOLUNTARY OR INVOLUNTARY), THE GOOD, BAD & UGLY!
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