WHAT DRUG NAMES MEAN TO ME « Viceland.com

WHAT DRUG NAMES MEAN TO ME « Viceland.com: "WHAT DRUG NAMES MEAN TO ME

Nomen est omen is Latin for, “Your name is your destiny,” and I think that there is perhaps a special and purposeful moment when any drug is named. A drug is, at some point, christened like a child is christened and all the good fortune that is wished upon an infant is also wished upon a drug. Whether it’s from the street or from the pharmacies, at some point there is the giving of a name to every substance. I realize that there is a chemical nomenclature involved in there as well, but it is bent in ways to make the name of the drug sweeter to the ear; give a drug a poetic and pleasant-sounding name and people will be more comfortable with taking the drug. Everything is in a name. Here’s what some drug names mean to me, what the names evoke."