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From: rb@cci632.UUCP (Rex Ballard)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Aspirin vs. Codine
Message-ID: <529@cci632.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 16-Oct-86 14:00:29 EDT
Article-I.D.: cci632.529
Posted: Thu Oct 16 14:00:29 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 16-Oct-86 23:09:49 EDT
References: <1823@bu-cs.bu-cs.BU.EDU>
Reply-To: rb@ccird2.UUCP (Rex Ballard)
Organization: CCI, Rochester Development, Rochester, NY
Lines: 30
Summary: Aspirin a potential controlled substance.

In article <1823@bu-cs.bu-cs.BU.EDU> bzs@bu-cs.BU.EDU (Barry Shein) writes:
>A few years ago I had surgery. I was in a fair amount of pain afterwards
>(I was basically bed-ridden for several days.) The doctor had given me
>codeine pills which kind of wiped me out but did little to reduce the
>pain (I sort of laid there and complained more slowly.)
>
>Well, I was pretty bored and still in pain so I took a few
>aspirin.
>
>Moral: Just because a painkiller has been given a mystique due to it's
>unavailability, don't underestimate good old aspirin*.

In several interviews with officials of the F.D.A., there was a clear
indication that if aspirin had to be cleared today, that the F.D.A.
would make aspirin a controlled substance.

There is a more "effective" form of the active ingredient in aspirin
which is made from boiling birch or aspen bark.  Before "modern
medicine", this "tea" was often given to patients for fever and
pain.  The instability and impurities however made the practice
very dangerous.  It was not uncommon to get the equivelant of
2000 mg. (4 extra strength tablets) in a single cup.  Two or three
cups of this "tea" could be quite interesting.

In China, and several other areas of the world, it is still possible
to get certain herbal "teas" whose main ingredient can be
hallucenogenic or narcotic, even though the active ingredient
itself is controlled.

Rex B.