good riddance to bad medicine

The FDA has finally banned Darvon (propoxyphene), long after the UK (six years ago) and the EU (a year and a half ago) and far too late in my opinion.

Back in the late 1970's, during my last two years of high school, I worked part-time at a library. I read everything I could get my hands on. Fascinated by mind-altering practices and drugs, I devoured many books such as "It's So Good, Don't Even Try It Once" (an analysis of heroin and other opiates, detailing the trade-off between a great high and the collapse of lifestyle that often accompanies it; this book reinforced my fear of heroin) and "Recreational Drugs" (a remarkably comprehensive user's guide to, well, recreational drugs, be they prescription drugs, herbs, fungi or anything else) as well as non-chemical related books like "100 Ways To Alter Your Consciousness Without Drugs".

"Recreational Drugs" was particularly informative, and I learned a lot. Some drugs are always dangerous. Many drugs can be used safely on occasion. Not all drugs will kill you when taken in reasonable dosages. This book presented the pros and cons of each, what a recreational user can expect insofar as the high and its aftermath, potential for overdose and addiction and the like. Despite my wide experience with drugs of all types during the subsequent years, I kept the warnings presented by this book in mind - and was more careful than I probably appeared to be.

What the book "Recreational Drugs" had to say about Darvon was equally in-depth, but it was the only drug in the entire book wherein the description began with the words,

"Don't take this drug, ever."

Darvon's painkilling effects are roughly equivalent to aspirin. This was known over 30 years ago. Darvon's lethal dose, however, is very small in comparison to the therapeutic dose.

At the age of 16, with these warnings in mind, I tried Darvon anyway. One pill; no effect. The next day, two pills; still no buzz. A few days later I took four of them about an hour before school let out. They hit me during English - the last class of the day - and I was so ill that the teacher wanted to send me to the nurse. I talked her into letting me just go get a drink of water and hang out in the bathroom. I never took Darvon again. The high was unpleasant, like going directly from sober to badly hungover without the hours of a nice buzz in between.