The pink pill
Introduction
The history of heroin pills in relation to today's heroin problem has been discussed in some detail under the section entitled Background (see page 4). Today, heroin pills are becoming increasingly rare-local manufacture taking place only very occasionally and then on a relatively small scale. The market for the pills is mainly aged heroin addicts who are probably unable to afford heroin at its present high price.
The Manufacture of Heroin Pills While it would appear that heroin pills are on the verge of extinction, they have undergone and survived crises in the past, particularly in the early 1950s when it seemed that they would be completely replaced by No. 3 heroin. It is considered worthwhile to record briefly the process for the manufacture of heroin pills, both because of the possibility of a 'revival' and because the pill ingredients show an interesting similarity with chemicals used in the present day manufacture of No. 3 Heroin.
The manufacture of heroin pills was first reported by the North China Daily News (Shanghai) in an article published in 1925. In a formula for the manufacture of 10,000 pills, strych- nine, quinine and caffeine, all of which are used today as additives/diluents in heroin manufacture, were included.
Heroin pills
Chemical analysis of some heroin pills in 1926 showed that they weighed about 0.25 gramme each and contained the following:
66% lactose 22% cane sugar 6.9% caffeine 2.8% heroin
1.4% quinine sulphate 0.7% strychnine.
The ingredients for heroin pills have remained almost identical for 50 years. In addition to the ingredients listed above, a heroin pill factory discovered by the police in 1976 was found to contain quantities of gum arabic, vanillin and a red dye.
30