Monoacetylmorphine

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Monoacetylmorphine (MAM) is one of 2 active metabolites of heroin (diacetylmorphine).

Along with morphine, MAM is rapidly created from heroin and excreted in the urine. Since MAM is a unique metabolite to heroin, its presence in the urine confirms that heroin was the opiate used. This is significant because on a urine immunoassay drug screen, the test typically tests for morphine, which is a metabolite of a number of legal and illegal opiates such as codeine, morphine sulphate, and heroin. MAM remains in the urine for no more than 24 hours so a urine specimen must be collected soon after the last heroin use, but the presence of MAM guarantees that heroin was in fact used as recently as within the last day.

Whether MAM actively binds with μ(mu)-opioid receptors or not is not known but diacetylmorphine (heroin) actually has very weak affinity to mu-opioid receptors, but it is its extremely rapid half life and high lipid solubility which makes for such a powerful effect. This is because it delivers a higher concentraton of morphine past the blood brain barrier much quicker then morphine alone. This then suggests that MAM probably also has weak opioid receptor affinity.

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