Mad Science (or Perhaps Downright Insane Science)

Etorphine is a relative of Morphine but thousands of times more potent. First synthesised in 1963 it is best known as “Elephant Juice” the drug that can drop a rampaging elephant in a second. The Molecule of the Month website (yes it does exist!) includes this sentence “Scientists at BAT (British American Tobacco) once debated adding it to tobacco as it might create an addictive craving for it”

Etorphine in cigarettes? This must be a joke I thought and I kept on thinking it until I came across this 2003 article from the BMJ journal Tobacco Control Online :

“Working in tobacco control, it is easy to get the impression that the tobacco industry is a united front, with all parties avoiding divisions that might undermine the greater struggle against the "antis". However, tobacco industry documents that have been made public as a result of litigation in the USA reveal ruthless competition as well as intense suspicion about competitors’ activities. This was brought home to us recently when reading a 1977 document on "developments in the scientific field" by Dr Sydney J Green, then British American Tobacco’s (BAT’s) senior scientist for research and development. Green informed his readers about"way-out" developments at BAT including :

"A way-out development is that of compounds (such as etorphine) which are 10,000 times as effective as analgesics [such] as morphine and which are very addictive. It is theoretically possible (if politically unthinkable) to add analytically undetectable quantities of such materials to cigarettes to create brand allegiance. But this thought may suggest the possibility of such compounds occurring naturally."

Green’s report followed an earlier memo from Keith D Kilburn to CI Ayres, expressing concern about what BAT’s competitors might be doing in order to create brand allegiance. Kilburn proposed that a regular etorphine dose of as little as 0.2 microgram per day would be sufficient to create an addictive craving for the source. He also claimed that the required delivery per cigarette…would be analytically difficult to measure.

Etorphine is a powerful drug with heroin-like effects, which include respiratory failure in the case of overdose. The dangers of etorphine to humans have been dramatically demonstrated in accidents during veterinary use, as there have been fatal overdoses to veterinarians attempting to dart large unruly animals. As a consequence of these fatalities, veterinarians who are registered to use etorphine must now have an assistant standing by with a dose of an etorphine antagonist in hand.

Very low concentrations of certain psychoactive substances may be sufficient to produce important effects, including addiction. Fortunately, etorphine has become much more readily detectable in recent years than Green and Kilburn suggested was the case in 1977, because forensic toxicologists have put considerable effort into developing highly sensitive detection methods. However, in a world market with minimal regulation of cigarette additives and limited testing capacity outside the industry’s own laboratories, we should remain concerned about what the tobacco industry might be willing to do in order to create "brand allegiance".


I suppose one should never be surprised at such ideas but to consider using Elephant juice to increase brand addiction, even as a wild idea, was sheer and utter madness!It is just as well they never implemented the plan. On the other hand one would probably go down well with a Heroin Cola and an Opium club sandwich…..


Etorphine
Cigarettes
Smoking