# Why can we give dying patients Morphine and not Heroin? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 5, 2005, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-can-we-give-dying-patients-morphine-and-not-heroin/283112 "2005-01-05T00:19:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![jester21](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ed655f/32.png) [@jester21](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jester21)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2005, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-can-we-give-dying-patients-morphine-and-not-heroin/283112/21 "2005-01-05T08:39:15Z")
> [@stockton](#): > > Like when I saw Godfather III? I think it gave me both. I had a similar experience during Battlefield Earth :smack: ---
**Author:** ![vetbridge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5e925/32.png) [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2005, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-can-we-give-dying-patients-morphine-and-not-heroin/283112/22 "2005-01-05T14:37:59Z")
We live in a time where medical marijuana is unavailable to most who would benefit from it. Heroin? Right. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2005, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-can-we-give-dying-patients-morphine-and-not-heroin/283112/23 "2005-01-05T16:45:54Z")
Roland mentioned “tweaking” the molecular structure of heroin to change it into a patentable chemical that would have similar effects. Actually this is done all the time. There are now dozens of different opiates with slightly different molecular structures and delivery systems, all with slightly different effects–just ask Rush Limbaugh. ---
**Author:** ![amarone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@amarone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarone)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2005, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-can-we-give-dying-patients-morphine-and-not-heroin/283112/24 "2005-01-05T17:51:11Z")
> [@Roches](#): > > Apparently heroin is still available by prescription in the UK, but I don’t know how up-to-date this information is or how often it would be prescribed. My stepfather was prescribed heroin when he was dying with cancer in 1982 in England. It is even quite likely that his actual cause of death was heroin overdose, given that the doctor’s instructions were to give him as much as he wants whenever he wants. ---
**Author:** ![DeVena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dec6dc/32.png) [@DeVena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeVena)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2005, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-can-we-give-dying-patients-morphine-and-not-heroin/283112/25 "2005-01-05T19:42:32Z")
Some interesting history on [The Harrison Narcotic Tax Act of 1914](http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/Library/studies/cu/cu8.html) and heroin. > [@](#): > > Far from appearing to be a prohibition law, the Harrison Narcotic Act on its face was merely a law for the orderly marketing of opium, morphine, heroin, end other drugs-in small quantities over the counter, and in larger Quantities on a physician’s prescription. Indeed, the right of a physician to prescribe was spelled out in apparently unambiguous terms: “Nothing contained in this section shall apply . . . to the dispensing or distribution of any of the aforesaid drugs to a patient by a physician, dentist, or veterinary surgeon registered under this Act in the course of his professional practice only.” 6 Registered physicians were required only to keep records of drugs dispensed or prescribed. it is unlikely that a single legislator realized in 1914 that the law Congress was passing would later be decreed a prohibition law. > > The provision protecting physicians, however, contained a joker hidden in the phrase, “in the course of his professional practice only .” 7 After passage of the law, this clause was interpreted by law-enforcement officers to mean that a doctor could not prescribe opiates to an addict to maintain his addiction. Since addiction was not a disease, the argument went, an addict was not a patient, and opiates dispensed to or prescribed for him by a physician were therefore not being supplied “in the course of his professional practice.” Thus a law apparently intended to ensure the orderly marketing of narcotics was converted into a law prohibiting the supplying of narcotics to addicts, even on a physician’s prescription. > > Many physicians were arrested under this interpretation, and some were convicted and imprisoned. Even those who escaped conviction had their careers ruined by the publicity. The medical profession quickly learned that to supply opiates to addicts was to court disaster. ---
**Author:** ![Testy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c37758/32.png) [@Testy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Testy)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2005, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-can-we-give-dying-patients-morphine-and-not-heroin/283112/26 "2005-01-05T19:56:04Z")
IIRC, there was something given to terminal cancer patients that included heroin. IIFRC(If I Further Recall Correctly) the other main ingredient was cocaine. I believe this was used quite a while back and was named “Somebody’s Mixture.” Anyway, it would be interesting to know one way or the other. Thanks Testy ---
**Author:** ![Testy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c37758/32.png) [@Testy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Testy)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2005, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-can-we-give-dying-patients-morphine-and-not-heroin/283112/27 "2005-01-05T20:08:09Z")
They should have thrown in some heavy hallucinogens and \*really[/'i] done a job on those poor people. My wife has had serious radiation treatment and the way people scurry like rats getting off a sinking ship is horrible. Likewise the alignment lasers and dim lighting and equipment. With a little heavy fog along the floor, it would pass for an alien abduction scene. Getting hit with as much radiation as you describe must have been catastrophic after having eaten that much THC. I’ve talked with a few doctors that were involved with studies (Australia) of THC on patients taking serious chemo. They said the older people were not so good; still nauseated and now also extremely confused. He said the younger people did much better as they knew what to expect and brought a Walkman or the like. Regards Testy ---
**Author:** ![Roland\_Deschain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/73ab20/32.png) [@Roland\_Deschain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roland_Deschain)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2005, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-can-we-give-dying-patients-morphine-and-not-heroin/283112/28 "2005-01-05T23:41:45Z")
I seem to remember from one of my physiology or biology classes that the body (specifically the CNS I think) produces a natural pain killer _many_ times more potent than opiate based medications. Is this in fact the case and if it is what are these endogeninous opiate like painkillers called? Has anyone been able to isolate, and replicate these for possible drug production? ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2005, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-can-we-give-dying-patients-morphine-and-not-heroin/283112/29 "2005-01-06T00:48:36Z")
> [@Roland Deschain](#): > > I seem to remember from one of my physiology or biology classes that the body (specifically the CNS I think) produces a natural pain killer _many_ times more potent than opiate based medications. Is this in fact the case and if it is what are these endogeninous opiate like painkillers called? Has anyone been able to isolate, and replicate these for possible drug production? [Endorphins.](http://www.bartleby.com/65/en/endorphi.html) First discovered by Dr. Sol Snyder in 1975. I was privileged to to take some seminars and spend some one on one time with him as a medical student, after he’d won the Lasker Award for his work (The most prestigious American medical award). The molecules are not real stable outside of the body, IIRC. All opiates mimic their structures to some extent. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-can-we-give-dying-patients-morphine-and-not-heroin/283112.md?page=1)