/oss/taxonomy/term/5646/all en /oss/article/history-you-asked/why-are-people-addicted-heroin-called-junkies <p>By the first decade of the twentieth century heroin addiction had become a huge problem in major American cities such as New York. The drug was not cheap and some people experiencing addiction resorted to supporting their habit by rifling through junkyards for scrap metal that they could sell. Interestingly, heroin was introduced by the Bayer Company in 1897 as a non-habit forming version of morphine. It was originally synthesized in 1874 by C.R. Wright, an English chemist who hoped to improve the properties of morphine by altering its molecular structure.</p> Sat, 11 Sep 2021 08:00:00 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 8838 at /oss