the watered-down Dilaudid
Numorphan, kind of a watered-down Dilaudid—®Du Pont Pharmaceuticals.
Context
A single rung on the opiate ladder catalogued: Numorphan as "a watered-down Dilaudid," positioned relative to the drug that anchors the Fackelmann/Gately narcotic economy. The pharmacopeia's precise gradations, the addict's connoisseurship of potency rendered as a brand-comparison.