Bayer sold heroin as a cough remedy
Bayer introduced heroin as a commercial medicine in 1898, presenting it chiefly as a treatment for coughs and other breathing complaints. Doctors could prescribe it, and Bayer promoted it through medical advertising and samples. The name was a brand name, not a description of what the drug did: heroin is diacetylmorphine, a chemical made from morphine.
The pitch hinged on comparison. Morphine was already used for pain but was known to cause dependence. Bayer promoted heroin as a less habit-forming substitute, an assurance that helped make a powerful opioid seem like a useful improvement. It was also used for conditions such as pain and, in some settings, given to children for coughs.
A medicine’s promise became its danger
Heroin can suppress coughing, but it also enters the brain quickly and acts on the same opioid system as morphine. That can relieve pain and produce a sense of well-being; repeated use can lead to tolerance, meaning a person needs more for the same effect, and to dependence. Withdrawal and the risk of overdose made the drug’s supposed safety advantage untenable.
As evidence of harm accumulated and controls on opioids tightened, heroin’s place in medicine shrank. The striking lesson in Bayer’s campaign is not simply that a drug once had a medical use: a claim of lower risk helped sell a drug whose effects could make continued use increasingly difficult to stop.
