Opium, Morphine - what's the difference?

[Taverner]

They're both narcotics that fight pain - but is Morphine a derivative of Opium?

And Heroin is Opium based - right?

[WCGreen]

1. Variations on a theme....

[johnnie]

2. Morphine is part of opium

Heroin is made from the morphine. Opium comes from the opium poppy plant.

[madrchsod]

3. opium..ahhhhhhhhhh

where did the day go? opium is so much cleaner

[Ariana Celeste]

10. opium...

is bliss. mellow, peaceful happiness, with a great smell to boot. :loveya:

[EstimatedProphet]

4. I think we should try them and compare

[dolo amber]

5. Opium is the natural derivative of the poppy

Morphine is the extruded (as it were) essence of opium. Heroin is a further extraction/distillation, usually cut with baby laxatives and sold for more per weight than gold.

[smirkymonkey]

7. So does that mean Morphine is a better high than Heroin?

People talk about Heroin like it's the best high imaginiable, but I had Morphine when I was in the hospital for appendicitis and, although it dulled the edge of the excruciating pain and made me feel peaceful, I didn't think it was THAT great. Maybe it's because I was in so much pain that it just cancelled out the opiate effects of the drug.

[NNadir]

6. Acetylation. Here's an interesting fact.

Heroin was invented as a cure for morphine addiction.

Heroin is morphine that is shaken up with a little acetic anhydride in a very simple chemical reaction. It is interestingly very similar to the reaction that is used to make aspirin.

[smirkymonkey]

8. So what is methadone?

Just an even more cut version of heroin?

[NNadir]

9. No. Methadone is a synthetic molecule that is not derived from morphine.

It works on the same receptors on the brain, but is chemically different, at least based on it's basic structure. In a three dimensional structural sense, the methadone molecule has some similarity in shape to morphine - we call this being "isosteric" - but it is not actually an opium derivative.

Like heroin, methadone itself is a drug of abuse. However unlike heroin it is not worse than the drug for which a "cure" for addiction is being sought.

Obviously the attempt to cure morphine addiction by giving heroin was a failure. I'm not all that convinced that the attempt to cure heroin addiction by giving methadone is all that great either.

[dolo amber]

11. I'm pretty sure it's not, in fact

Am I right in thinking the Nazis actually came up with Methadone? I know that's a widely held belief in certain circles...in others, it's widely believed it was Satan. :D

[NNadir]

12. Methadone was invented by German Chemists during World War II.

It was developed by I.G. Farben chemists working in the Hoechst division.

Whether the chemists who did the work were actually Nazis themselves, I have no idea. Probably it was the case that they were looking for pain killers that circumvented the German inability to obtain opium because of constricted trade. I don't think they were setting out to make a compound for insidious purposes, although one really doesn't know the facts of the matter.

[smirkymonkey]

14. Didn't I.G. Farben also develop Zyklon B used in the gas chambers?

And wasn't Prescott Bush somehow affiliated w/ the firm? Not sure, but I vaguely recall something like that.

[Random_Australian]

13. Heroin and Morphine only have one difference: How the

blood brain barrier deals with them.

When blood enters the brain, it is filtered by the blood brain barrier (BBB) to remove any dangerous chemicals in the blood.

Heroin is morphine with an (acetyl group, I think) attached, and with those different properties crosses the BBB very quickly. Morphine takes a fair bit longer. Once in the brain, the heroin is converted to morphine, and goes from there.

Opium itself, I dunno. But the difference between heroin and morphine is that heroin basically equals morphine injected into the brain.

[begin_within]

15. Your brain maufactures its own opiate-like substances called endorphins

They are produced by the pituitary gland and hypothalamus, and their release is triggered by some activities such as exercise, laughter, sexual orgasm, childbirth, etc. This is why you sometimes feel sleepy right after sexual activity, even if it is not your normal sleeping hours. The blood concentrations are much lower, though, than when morphine or heroin is introduced to the system.

[graywarrior]

16. Morphine are incredible musicians?

[mdmc]

17. yes!