Substitites

[Steve O]

Prior to 1800, there was a problem with opium addiction. In December of
1804, Friedrich Sertürner extracted a highly potent analgesic from
opium, which he called morphine.

It was soon to be touted as a solution to opium addiction.
Unfortunately, soon many people were addicted to morphine.

In 1895, a German drug company marketed diacetylmorphine as an
over-the-counter drug under the trademark name Heroin. It was chiefly
developed as a morphine substitute that "did not have morphine's
addictive side-effects".

It was touted as a solution to morphine addiction.

However, contrary to the company's advertising as a "non-addictive
morphine substitute," heroin would soon have one of the highest rates of
dependence amongst its users.

In 1937, another lab developed methadone, a "safe" alternative to
heroin. So the poor addicts could have yet another drug to be addicted to.

The problem with all of this is obvious. If you substitute one
"solution" to addiction with another "solution" that works exactly like
the original, you really haven't solved the addiction, have you? You've
just substituted one addiction for another.