That quite reminds me of the “pot belge” that Retro cyclists used for Retro doping, which would contain basically anything and everything stimulating and/or analgesic, like cocaine, morphine, atropine, heroin, caffeine, amphetamines, strychnine…
Shoot, a feller could have a pretty good time in Vegas with all that stuff!
When and where did you make a Brompton’s Cocktail? Just the decade and the country is OK.
Early 70s, U.S.
I’m a retired American pharmacist too, and I did hear of variations of the Brompton’s Cocktail from older practitioners.
As recently as the 00s, heroin, under the name diamorphine, was used in England for terminal cancer pain, and even labor in conjunction with nitrous oxide.
I have a fresh bottle in the cabinet.
If it’s for a terminal cancer patient, and that’s what works: why not?
They might get addicted!
If I had a painful terminal cancer I’d risk the addiction.
Terminal means rehab won’t be a problem.
Presumably with a sarcasm tag?
Did anyone else spend summers covered in pale pink dots of Calamine Lotion? Other than Bactine and the occasional Cola Syrup, that was pretty much the only retro remedy I experienced in the 80s.
Yeah, in the 60s/70s my mom’s armamentarium included calamine lotion for skin stuff, paregoric for GI issues, and warm, flat coke or ginger ale for all else.
The real miracle of manuka honey:
I made Brompton’s only a couple of times, when I was a pharmacy extern at a compound pharmacy in my home town. It was considered archaic even then (though a very effective pain killer). It was prescribed by an elderly physician for an elderly lady with end-stage cancer. I used the classic formulation: cocaine, morphine, Thorazine (an anti-psychotic) and gin (put in an olive and you’ve got a kick-ass martini).
I didn’t like the pharmacist-owner of that pharmacy—he was a jerk. I remember when I started working there, asking him why he had 1 of 4 colors marked on each patient’s chart. He told me it was his method of keeping track of how much to mark up prices for that patient’s prescriptions. He determined the color by eyeing up new customers when they first dropped off a script. If he liked them, he marked the chart with a low-price color, if he didn’t like them, he marked a high price color. It pissed me off when my parents came in to pick up a script one day and I saw that their chart had the highest price mark.
He was also an odd-ball in not keeping his schedule II drugs in a lock box. I recall him keeping the 1 oz vials of cocaine HCL USP and morphine semi-hidden behind the Rorer (later Lemmon) brand bottles of methaqualone (ludes) on an open shelf. I mean, can you make things any easier for robbers?
Did I mention I was pretty popular at parties back then???
Before that I worked at a Rite Aid Pharmacy—hated that job! I started a week after a very busy pharmacy down the street burned to the ground and all their charts were relocated to my store. Needless to say, the pharmacy was extremely busy during my tenure.
As an extern, I was supposed to be filling and compounding prescriptions, but the tool-of-a district manager stuck me on the cash register. I told him I never worked a cash register before, and he responded with something to the effect, “it ain’t rocket science, just do it!” Well, I did it, and on my first night, after cashing out, I was off by over $5k. I got reamed out for that.
Pharmacy helped pay my way through med school (it still took me a decade to pay off the balance of the hyper-interest student loan), but I didn’t renew my license after I graduated.
Pro-tip: if you have questions about drugs, their interactions, side effects, indications, contra-indications, etc., ask your pharmacist, not your physician. Druggists get much more in-depth training in pharmacology, pharmacognosy, pharmacophysiology, and pharmaceutics than docs.
My pharmacy is locally owned. The head guy is never there. He’s at the track or the boat. Tools around town in a Jag. He’s a really nice guy, tho’. If you catch him running out he’ll say the “girls” will take care of you. Nevermind they’re not all “girls”. But they are all pharmacists. A couple are real green tho’. Maybe they got their degree online or something. But they don’t seem to be able to converse with patients.
I know exactly what I’m taking and what I need. So I double check. I ain’t no qualms about unstapling that bag and looking. If I’m not able Ivy is always with me…to speak up if need be.
Gotta be your own advocate.
Decades ago I picked up a prescription from a pharmacy in Pittsburgh (where my doctor was). When I got home I was surprised to find that I’d been given hydrocodone (a controlled substance) when the prescription was for hydrochlorothiazide (a diuretic).
I called the pharmacy to complain. After being on hold a long time, the pharmacist freaked out at the mistake and demanded that I return immediately!!!
I laughed. I told him I lived an hour away and if he wanted to fix things he could drive to my home. He yelled some more, so I hung up.
I called my doctor’s office and they called in a prescription for what I needed at my local pharmacy. I kept the hydrocodone.
That reminds me of a fill-in pharmacist who I occasionally worked with. He was a bit of a buffoon. Nice guy, and always joking around…but he didn’t seem all that bright (or, maybe he hid it well).
Whenever a customer asked him a drug-related question, he replied, “I dunno, ask Mary.”
Mary was a middle-age lady pharmacy assistant with no formal pharmacy or medical training, but she worked many years at the pharmacy, and must have read a lot of medical journals on her own time. Her answers were always spot-on. I liked Mary. And, I admit I had a crush on her.
@Tibby, I sure hope you didn’t help yourself to any of the goods, as you may be implying.
Huh? Certainly not. I was simply friends with Mary. It went no further than that.
I meant the not-very-locked-up controlled substances.