Thebaine
Pronunciation:THEE-buh-een (also pronounced thi-BAY-in)
Chemical Abstracts Service Registry Number:115-37-7
Formal Names:Paramorphine
Type:Depressant (opiate class).Seepage 22
Federal Schedule Listing:Schedule II (DEA no. 9333)
USA Availability:Prescription
Pregnancy Category:None
Uses.Although thebaine is listed as a depressant in this book because the
substance is an opiate, the substance is an unusual opiate lacking many effects
seen in drugs of that class—and indeed sometimes seems more like a stimu-
lant. Thebaine is one of the chemicals found inopiumand in a poppy plant
calledPapaver bracteatum. Trace amounts are manufactured in brains of cows
and presumably in brains of other mammals, and scientists suspect that mam-
mals transform thebaine intomorphine. Animal studies show that thebaine
possesses mild ability to relieve pain and can lower pulse rate and blood
pressure, but the drug has no medical use. Instead, its value is that other drugs
can be produced from it:buprenorphine, codeine, etorphine, hydrocodone,
nalbuphine, oxycodone, andoxymorphone. Opiate manufacturing creates
waste products from which thebaine can be reclaimed, thereby allowing fuller
use of an opium harvest. Thebaine in urine is considered evidence that a
person testing positive for opiates has ingested a poppy seed food instead of
an illicit drug.
Drawbacks.Tests with a variety of animal species, including human beings,
show that thebaine can produce convulsions. That effect is so typical that two
researchers have described thebaine as more a poison than a medicine. Com-
pared to morphine, a much smaller dose of thebaine can be fatal.
Abuse factors.Experiments with monkeys indicate that thebaine has less
addiction potential than codeine, but results were inconclusive about whether
thebaine produces dependence. A World Health Organization advisory com-
mittee concluded that high doses of thebaine do produce dependence in mon-
keys, but the committee doubted that drug abusers could take high-enough
doses to produce dependence. Only faint evidence of dependence developed
in a canine study, and rat research produced no dependence at all. Some
researchers have expressed uncertainty about whether dependence develops