Pharmaceutical heroin for inhalation: thermal analysis and recovery experiments after volatilisation

Pharmaceutical heroin for inhalation was developed for a clinical trial on co-prescription of heroin and methadone to chronic treatment-resistant heroin addicts. Diacetylmorphine base was selected as the active pharmaceutical ingredient for this product with caffeine anhydrate added as an excipient. Differential scanning calorimetry and thermogravimetric analysis showed that addition of caffeine resulted in a lower melting temperature and a higher volatilisation rate for the mixture than for diacetylmorphine base alone. Recovery experiments showed that 40.8+/-5.3% of diacetylmorphine base could be found in smoke condensate after volatilisation of diacetylmorphine-caffeine tablets. All of the caffeine from each tablet was recovered unchanged in the fumes, while 85.6% of the diacetylmorphine from each tablet was recovered, either unchanged in the fumes or as non-volatilised residue. Recovery was found to be reproducible and only small differences were found between the tablet types. The experimental set-up was found to efficiently collect the vapours resulting from heating the powder. Under the tested experimental conditions, no evidence was found that degradation products of diacetylmorphine or caffeine, other than 6-acetylmorphine (5.9%) had volatilised, even though a decomposed residue was present after heating diacetylmorphine-caffeine samples. Diacetylmorphine-caffeine was found to be a suitable basis for pharmaceutical heroin to be used by 'chasing the dragon'.