posted on Aug, 4 2004 @ 06:19 AM
The german company was looking for a cough suppressant. So the companys chemists approached Bayer with the drug ASA to be sold under the name of
'Asprin'. However the head was more interested in something else the chemists had produced; Diacetylmorphine. Using the trade name "Heroin",
because it made early testers feel heroic, the drug was shipped by the truckload starting in 1898. By 1899 Bayer were producing about a ton of heroin
a year exporting to 23 different countries. Including the U.S where is was available over the counter, just as asprin is today. The Americal Medical
Association gave heroin their stamp of approval in 1907.
However cases of addiction started to emerge in 1899, and within the next few years it has esculated to intollerable proportions. Bayer had release
asprin the following year, which became the most popular drug ever, and they wisely got out of the heroin bussiness by 1913.
Its kind of funny why they don't mention this anywhere on thier website!
www.bayer.com