mystery pills from 1965

[Pantopon Pete]

So I need some input from you all, my esteemed junkie colleagues:

I was cleaning out my grandmother's house today, because she's moving into a nursing home. Of course, my nature compels me to make a beeline for the medicine closet. Inside, I found a small pill vial from a now defunct pharmacy. On a handwritten label on the vial is this- " for Mrs.[grandma]- take one(1) pill as needed every 6 hrs. for pain." and it was dated mar. 1965. The pills inside are plain white tablets stamped "winthrop" on one side and blank on the other.

Now, we all know how liberal with the narcotics doctors were in the 60's, so I can safely assume that they're something decent, right? And as far as I know, the worst thing that could happen to meds with time is their being rendered useless.

I don't suppose anybody knows what these are likely to be, but if there are any suggestions, please fire away. Thanks, and I'll talk to you later.

[Pantopon Pete]

I just went to drugs.com and the only other pill I found manufactured by winthrop is talacen, a generic pentazocine. Boo, if thats all these are.

[tch2296]

That doesn't mean they weren't making some good stuff 40 years ago...lol these things are a half-century old though, probably no good anymore.

However usually shit that says "take as needed every 6 hours as needed for pain" is good.

[Suboxstitute]

I've taken really old pain meds before - not THAT old, but I wonder if it would harm you to take one and see ?? The ones I found were maybe 20 years old and they still worked and nothing bad happened to me. bu of course "everyone's different!"

Wish you could try one - see what it does, not see if it harms you but I guess its one and the same. I know that often they lose their potency,,, but often they don't. And they usually don't turn into something bad AFAIK.

God I am dying to know, maybe you can keep searching around the net for effects of old pain medication and find something pertinent there. WISH I KNEW MORE. Or find a really old pharmacist!

Sue

[PrisonHer]

hey. call poison control or a pharmacy..tell them your dog ate a few and you need to know what they are..or whatever..you don't even need an excuse but they will usualy know..as I've called them before and they were very helpful. and report back..we wanna know ;)

[dieselbaby]

Yeah call poison control, you don't really have enough specific identifying information to find out what it is online. They should still be good though, stuff doesn't degrade THAT quickly.

[Chipper]

Wow ... some sort of dope archaeology (well, almost) ... this sort of thing really captures my imagination.

Your granny sure has a lot of willpower!

[stymie]

Because of the age of the pills, the only course of action would be to take them all at once on an empty stomach. Please report back. :p

[RxQueen]

those are some OLD pills! but curiosity would have the better of me too, if i had found them. the only thing i can think of that winthrop made that was half-decent was demerol... but i don't know if they made them 44 years ago. i guess the others are right in saying that your best bet would be to call poison control and see what they say.

[digby]

Generally, old pills will not hurt you in the slightest. Their are a few exceptions however, and antibiotics is one of them. They turn toxic over time, so you have to be careful there. Even with those, I think Cipro will last 10 years or more, but it is the exception.

To my knowledge, and confirmed by every source I have found including my very old pharmacist, narcotics will not hurt you no matter how old they are. Even the ones containing aspirin, even though they may stink to high heaven, are still safe to ingest. They may simply lose some potency over time. Of course I have to use the standard disclaimer of saying that I am neither a medical doctor nor a pharmacist so this is just based on things I have read by people more knowledgeable than myself and my own personal experience.
But the discard dates on prescriptions can for the most part be ignored. They were created to both free manufacturers from liability in the unusual exception but primarily to get people to buy fresh prescriptions to replace their outdated ones. More money for them.

Regarding benzos and the like - don't have too much experience there. I can say that I have taken somas that were 12 years old and worked fine, as well as 10 year old fioricet. There wasn't even a loss of potency in these two drugs.

[Synack]

a picture may help? I think at that time (1965) the company was called Sterling-Winthrop, Inc.

[taj]

So I need some input from you all, my esteemed junkie colleagues:

I was cleaning out my grandmother's house today, because she's moving into a nursing home. Of course, my nature compels me to make a beeline for the medicine closet. Inside, I found a small pill vial from a now defunct pharmacy. On a handwritten label on the vial is this- " for Mrs.[grandma]- take one(1) pill as needed every 6 hrs. for pain." and it was dated mar. 1965. The pills inside are plain white tablets stamped "winthrop" on one side and blank on the other.

Now, we all know how liberal with the narcotics doctors were in the 60's, so I can safely assume that they're something decent, right? And as far as I know, the worst thing that could happen to meds with time is their being rendered useless.

I don't suppose anybody knows what these are likely to be, but if there are any suggestions, please fire away. Thanks, and I'll talk to you later.

thank-you!!!! just got home from the bar(was lame!!!) and this is the funniest thing I've heard all night!!!

and oh yeah...my inner junky is dying to know too...my doc said heat will degrade narcotics so hopefully they weren't stored in the bathroom

good luck with your gramdma too....hopefully they'll take good care of her

[Hoss]

Because of the age of the pills, the only course of action would be to take them all at once on an empty stomach.

Yay for harm reduction!

[roxi*stardust]

I just went to drugs.com and the only other pill I found manufactured by winthrop is talacen, a generic pentazocine. Boo, if thats all these are.
Highly unlikely a full synthetic like pentazocine was around and prescribed in 1965. After a bit of research, pentazocine was discovered in 1962 so it's unlikely that it was being prescribed at this point. I know hydrocodone and oxycodone were around but don't know how widely they were actually prescribed. At that time morphine and methadone well known pain relievers. I'm on the hunt...

[tch2296]

Pills that are taken "every 6 hours as needed for pain" are generally narcotic/anxiolytic in nature...

They certainly wouldn't harm you.

I still think it is some sort of ancient narcotic.

[runormal]

I just went to drugs.com and the only other pill I found manufactured by winthrop is talacen, a generic pentazocine. Boo, if thats all these are.

Wikipedia says that Pentazocine was approved by the FDA in 1967, two years after this script was written. However, it also said that Pentazocine was being tested on 12,000 patients in order to become approved so is there a chance that she was part of that group? The "Recreational Use" section of the article is actually pretty interesting, it says that "dentists, doctors, and nurses in the Middle Western United States" were responsible for discovering ways to mix it with other chemicals to get high, etc. during the 1970's.

[tch2296]

Yeah, when mixed with an antihistamine, it produced a euphoric rush and a high.

If you mix antihistamines like diphenhydramine or promethazine into an injection of your DOC, you will experience an intense rush. It works with almost any opiate. There was a period years back when cyclizine, and antihistamine, had to be regulated because so many junkies were mixing it into their shots.

[Poppylvr]

I don't suppose anybody knows what these are likely to be, but if there are any suggestions, please fire away. Thanks, and I'll talk to you later.
OK, call me conservative (don't call me Republican though), but all of ya'll saying "just take them" are NUTS:eek: !
Throw that shite out, Pete.

[roxi*stardust]

OK, call me conservative (don't call me Republican though), but all of ya'll saying "just take them" are NUTS:eek: !
Throw that shite out, Pete.

I couldn't agree more. You never know if those pills were orginally what was in the bottle in the first place. Grams may have taken or dumped those pills and kept the bottle, put some other pills in it for storage. The DEA has a pill identification program, you email them the imprint and probably an image and they get back to you. They probably are the best best.

[devilsdrug]

codeine or the big D what size was said pill the size of today cod. or small like todays D but prolly the codeine a lot around then virtually no oxy or hydro

[JonnyMohawk]

It would be a lot of help if the OP would post a picture... Then I might be able to dig some shit up on this, however since they arent branded specifically things like color, size, shape, etc really matter.

[eukodol3000]

As someone else mentioned my guess would also be Demerol. I think this because of the manufacturer, as Winthrop discovered it, and because of the time period, 1965, when Demerol was highly prescribed, at least compared to other opioids more common today. Even these pills actually turn out to be Demerol, it would be a dangerous combination if you happen to be taking a MAOI Inhibitor.

[ryan]

This is a cool thread. If those are Demmies, that's quite a find IMHO.
Me personally, I would do one and just note the effects...i mean, even if it's like a bottle of estrogen pills or something (lol), ONE of them can't be that bad.

[edhorfin]

As someone else mentioned my guess would also be Demerol. I think this because of the manufacturer, as Winthrop discovered it, and because of the time period, 1965, when Demerol was highly prescribed, at least compared to other opioids more common today. Even these pills actually turn out to be Demerol, it would be a dangerous combination if you happen to be taking a MAOI Inhibitor.

I agree, bet they're demerol 50 mg. I had lots of winthrop demerol in the WAY past and it was damn popular back then, the ER protocol painkiller (IM)....

[clinton]

http://www.decodog.com/inven/MD/md28506b.jpg

[JonnyMohawk]

I would do one and just note the effects...i mean, even if it's like a bottle of estrogen pills or something (lol), ONE of them can't be that bad.

They often prescribed estrogen for pain in 1965...
it wasn't until the early 70's that they realized it was making men grow tits and cry more often... one of the worst medical mistakes in history.

[roxi*stardust]

They often prescribed estrogen for pain in 1965...
it wasn't until the early 70's that they realized it was making men grow tits and cry more often... one of the worst medical mistakes in history.

Just because the label says for pain doesn't mean that the original pills are in there. Maybe Grams ate all the pills and kept the bottle and threw her estrogen in them? I think that is what ryan was getting at.

[JonnyMohawk]

Just because the label says for pain doesn't mean that the original pills are in there. Maybe Grams ate all the pills and kept the bottle and threw her estrogen in them? I think that is what ryan was getting at.


Roxiii. It was a joke :]

[OxiContinKing]

They often prescribed estrogen for pain in 1965...
it wasn't until the early 70's that they realized it was making men grow tits and cry more often... one of the worst medical mistakes in history.

ROFL one of the funniest posts' I've read in a long time.

I actually busted laughing out loud when i read this, and then read it again and started laughing more.

Wow thanks man, honestly, I needed that, I am so fucking depressed i havent even smiled in weeks...

and shit really just hit the fan...but thats all for another thread, soon to come, as not to hijack this one.

[ryan]

They often prescribed estrogen for pain in 1965...
it wasn't until the early 70's that they realized it was making men grow tits and cry more often... one of the worst medical mistakes in history.

hahahaha

[losangeleslifer]

They often prescribed estrogen for pain in 1965...
it wasn't until the early 70's that they realized it was making men grow tits and cry more often... one of the worst medical mistakes in history.

No shit. There's already of plenty of men that act like bitches already.

[Pantopon Pete]

Wow, I totally forgot I posted this thread until now. So yeah, my assumption was the same as most of yours: demerol, morphine, etc.

I ended up taking 2 for shits and giggles, but it wasn't much of a controlled experiment because a- i did a bunch of blow that night, and b- i'm on 'done, so my tolerance is almost unbreakable. I didn't notice any euphoric effects, but strangely I ended up passing out with all my clothes and the lights on, which never happens.

As far as them not being the originally prescribed pills, I doubt it, as grandma is very organized and anal, and she never takes painkillers when she has them. I've taken countless different narcs from her house over the years.

Those of you who suggested contacting poison control and the DEA, thanks but no way. I'm not keen on putting myself on their radar, if only for peace of mind.

I'll try to dig up my camera and post a pic later.

oh, and someone asked about size: they're about the same size as an OC 40, maybe a hair wider.

[bronyraur]

No shit. There's already of plenty of men that act like bitches already.

Yeah, and more than a few of them have passed through Opiophile, ya know?

<snip>
oh, and someone asked about size: they're about the same size as an OC 40, maybe a hair wider.

I'd bet that they're either Demerol or Dilaudid, given the size of the pill. Or maybe levorphanol (aka Levo-Dromoran).

[Suboxstitute]

To the OP - any news? any verdict? any attempt at experimenting? Is there a rat around (no, I don't mean one of your friends) you can test it on?

I mean a REAL rat (they're not too expensive at the pet store and all the kids love them as pets, so you could find him a good home (after his high wears off of course).

This may truly be a once-in-a-lifetime archaeological high. Of course, I don't want or wish you getting sick or hurt so if you decided to toss them, well, it was always a toss-up.

I may have missed a post or two with an update, if not........don't forget to update the "inquiring minds want to know" crowd. Always want to know how the story, once started, ends.

Sue