Some interesting info on heroin, it's history, and how it got its name.
http://rehab-international.org/heroin-addiction
<snip>"The drug is illegal, and impossible to get through any sort of reputable channel. However, this doesn’t stop people from using the drug. In fact, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Results from the 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health: Summary of National Findings, 140,000 people used heroin for the first time in 2010. The average age of these first-time users was 21.3 years, which represents a decline in age from previous years. While some of these people may try heroin just once and suffer little to no effect from their use, others will develop serious and disabling addictions as a response to their heroin experimentation."<snip>
http://www.historytoday.com/ian-scott/heroin-hundred-year-habit
<snip>"Ironically from today’s perspective,
HEROIN took its name from the adjective heroisch (heroic) sometimes used by nineteenth-century German doctors for a powerful medicine." <snip>
<snip>"Today, heroin is know to be a more potent and faster acting painkiller than morphine because it passes more readily from the bloodstream into the brain. Heroin was praised in a number of early clinical trials, and was rapidly adopted in medical establishments in many countries. Bayer advertised the drug in German, English, Italian, Russian and other languages."<snip>
<snip>"Heroin was prescribed in place of morphine or codeine (another constituent of opium, isolated in 1832).....of heroin on fifty phthisis patients and found it effective in relieving their coughs and producing sleep. He noted no unpleasant reactions; indeed the patients liked it and continued to take the heroin after he ceased to prescribe. The addictive potential of heroin’s parent, morphine, was only too well known, and evidence steadily emerged that the new drug was not the hoped-for improvement in this respect. Horatio C. Wood Jr. reported in 1899 that heroin dosages had to be increased with usage to remain effective."<snip>
So, it was considered such a miraculous new drug that it was named after a play on the English word "
HEROINE". The definition of HEROINE, from which HEROIN got its name is as follows:
her·o·ine
ˈherəwən/
noun
a woman admired or idealized for her courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities.
"she was the heroine of a materialist generation"
synonyms: brave woman, hero, woman of courage, woman of the hour; More
the chief female character in a book, play, or movie, who is typically identified with good qualities, and with whom the reader is expected to sympathize.
synonyms: (female) protagonist, principal (female) character, principal (female) role, main character, title character; More
(in mythology and folklore) a woman of superhuman qualities and often semidivine origin, in particular one whose dealings with the gods were the subject of ancient Greek myths and legends.