Early 60's deadly combination

[incomitatus]

In the late 50's & early 60's drinking codeine cough medicine was all the rage in NYC and was available over the counter. Unlike the weak cough medicines today it was laced with a potent combination of dihydrocodeine, similar to vicodin. Eventually a tolerance was built up and more and more had to be consumed to get high. There was a sleeping pill called Doriden which when taken with codeine (or heroin, morphine) substantially increased the effects of opiates. In many cases the results were deadly and overdoses were common. The thing about Doriden was that it acted slowly and I still recall hearing about the deaths of several friends who were found by their parents in the morning dead in their beds. In their cases the mixture was heroin & Doriden.

[Greenport]

Interesting tidbit of information there. Quite a bit to add to this . People have come a hell of a long way in their drug knowledge/technology since the 1960s when drugs became seen moreso than ever before as a significant part of our society (woodstock ring any bells?).

In the past century, scientists have found an incredible amount of opiate-receptor stimulating substances, many of them a great deal more powerful than those used commonly medicinally/recreationally (ick). Along with that I'm sure has come a lot of research about how they work and how other things can potentiate or block their effects.

Hell, before prohibition in the 1920s people used to be able to buy cocaine and heroin over the counter. They had medicines like Hoffman's Drops which contained ethanol and ether. Someone once told me that if aspirin were to have been discovered more recently as a headache cure there'd be no way that we'd allow such use anymore.

There were a lot of medicines from that time era that we would never allow the use of today. Chloroethane and ether as anesthetics, acid was a potential cure-all drug until Nixon, etc.

Society has shunned some of the world's most useful substances. Wasps banned Mdma - why? Because it made people happy. "Oh no we can't have happy people!" They called safrole carcinogenic and now watch it like a hawk - as well as the governments of the world, all united as one for the most part, monitoring whose hands every chemical from acetone to zinc chloride winds up in. Of course that can be blamed partly on the meth (ewwww) epidemic...

The times have changed considerably, and that is why this forum exists. The people of the future will hopefully, thanks to the internet, know the actual truths about all drugs, and will adjust things accordingly throughout the entire world. However, the difference is that unlike 40 years ago, people will be armed with knowledge and thus knowledgeable decisions will be made rather than the propagandistly-based information that spread during the past century.

[usakicksass]

Doridan is just like the now outlawed Quaalude. Numb through and through, deadly with alcohol and driving. Reaction time to brake pedal about 3 seconds.

[Panthers007]

Glutethimide (Doriden) makes it's rounds still as touted as a heroin substitute when mixed with Tylenol 3 or 4 (acetaminophen/codeine). The combination can kill through respiratory depression as the two drugs mutually potentiate each other. Read: A dangerous combination best avoided.

[Orchid_Suspiria]

If swim could go back to the sixties he wouldn't have done the lame San Fransisco and acid thing.He would have went straight to NYC.Paid a visit to the Warhol factory and spent his days with a spike in his vein.Swim hears opiates of every kind were really big in NYC at the time as were benzos and barbiturates.

[usakicksass]

SWIM was taken to the ER unconscious, found on the street with a breathing rate of 4 per minute from mixing codiene and valium. Had SWIM not been found death was about an hour away swim was told. Besides valium or any of those benzos are for those who like to drool on their shoes all day. Big mental ripoff. NOT where its at.

Reputation Comments on this post:

Know your limits

[incomitatus]

There was a certain cough syrup we used to buy by the PINT from a druggist in lower Mahattan, it was called Tussar and and in those days (early 60's) it contained Hycodan (dihydrocodeinone bitartrate) and a small amount of ether. It was guaranteed to knock you on your ass. Normally it was sold in four ounce bottles ($1.50) and the high it gave one caused vivid hullicinations with an opiate high. I used heroin, diludid, and morphine for many years but nothing came close to matching that cough medicine high.

[Orchid_Suspiria]

Wow sounds like good times!Almost as good as the 1800's.It sucks that they had to invent dxm otherwise we could still get this stuff otc.

[usakicksass]

Swim used to get hycodan(and other things) from a midnight supply many years ago. Swim also paid a dear price for swims actions eventually. Hycodan is one of thee most sinister preparations swim knows. It has homatropine methybromide in it. That will give you strange kinky, crampy, hot and cold flash, visual disturbance downright ugly stomach muscle cringe. Homatropine is put in there just to keep people from "overdosing" ie, getting high. What a nightmare.

[Panthers007]

Just the facts, maam..."dihydrocodeinone bitartrate" is not Hycodan. Hycodan contains Hydrocodone. And, yes, it also contains homatropine. This is there to dry up secretions. Not to keep people from getting high - according to drug company (Endo) literature. But a SWIM certainly doesn't want to quaff a quantity of that. Look up atropine to see why this would be a rather obnoxious experience.