Beethoven, Heroin, Rumors?

[smorgan]

Is it true that beethoven was all hopped on heroin and other drugs in his life?
Or am i confusing him with Mozart?
Or did neither of them do it?

[Reeder]

Perhaps he used opium..but not heroin. It wasn't isolated until around 1890.

[Ringo]

Both Beethoven (d. 1827) and Mozart (d. 1791) were gone long before the A.G. Bayer company first produced heroin in the late 1800s. Too late for their contemporary Lord Byron as well.

[Reeder]

oops..1874..

1874 Diacetylmorphine HCl (better known by its brand name "heroin") is invented in England by C.R.A. Wright. This is done by combining morphine and acetic anhydride, a weak acid chemically similar to vinegar. His results are published in the Journal of the Chemical Society, though his theoretical understanding of the new molecule was incomplete and incorrect.

http://heroinhelper.com/curious/history/timeline.shtml

[mozart]

Actually I was in my mother's womb when she first heard Beethoven play some of his own stuff. Mommy was so impressed that she decided before I was born that I would be a composer. { I wanted to be a hockey player} Later luddy and I put back a little cynar artichoke liqueur and Newfoundland screech but we stayed away from drugs because at the time they were over 1000marks a ounce.