Brompton’s cocktail

An interesting mixture was concocted in Great Britain s Brompton Hospital to keep cancer patients pain-free and in a euphoric state. Named "Brompton s Cocktail" it consists of morphine or methadone plus cocaine or amphetamine plus syrup or honey plus 90-98% ethanol or gin plus chloroform and water. 

Medicinally, cocaine is of value as a local anaesthetic for topical application. It is rapidly absorbed by mucous membranes and paralyses peripheral ends of sensory nerves. This is achieved by blocking ion channels in neural membranes. It was widely used in dentistry, but has been replaced by safer drugs, though it still has applications in ophthalmic and ear, nose, and throat surgery. As a constituent of Brompton s cocktail (cocaine and heroin in sweetened alcohol) it is available to control pain in terminal cancer patients. It increases the overall analgesic effect, and its additional CNS stimulant properties counteract the sedation normally associated with heroin (see page 332). 

Exceptions to this last observation are encountered when the colored materials happen to be present in the same phase where, because of their excessive absorbances, the signal-to-noise ratio is decreased. This kind of complication was successfully handled in direct analytical assays devised for lysergic acid diamide (LSD)f and phencyclidine (PCP) in illicit drugs spiked with intensely colored dyes for L-cocaine, morphine, and methadone in the pharmaceutical product commonly referred to as Brompton s cocktails and for D-pseudoephedrine in children s Sudafed. ... 

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