cold, rain, and heroin

This week in school we learned that a man in Germany in the mid 1800's created aspirin and heroin in the same year. Heinrich Dresser formulated both compounds, and thought that heroin was the more marketable of the two compounds. Bayer pharmaceuticals began marketing heroin as a cough suppressant and it was given in mass doses to Tuberculosis patients. In 1899 Bayer was manufacturing literally a ton of heroin a year. Naturally Dresser was an incredibly successful man thanks to the enormous popularity of his two drugs. In 1924 though, Dresser died a heroin addict. He died of a massive stroke that ironically could have been prevented if he had been taking an aspirin a day. very interesting... now you know.