Buprenorphine?

Kurt Cobain used an experimental, single-ingredient version of pure buprenorphine (the active drug found in modern Subutex). 

At the time he took it, modern brand-name formulations like Suboxone (which adds naloxone to prevent injection) did not yet exist.

The History of Cobain's Buprenorphine Use

The Prescription: In 1992, following the birth of his daughter, Cobain saw Dr. Robert Fremont, a Los Angeles addiction specialist known for treating celebrities. Dr. Fremont introduced him to buprenorphine.

The Legal Status: In 1992 and 1993, buprenorphine was not FDA-approved or legal in the United States as a treatment for opioid use disorder (the FDA did not approve Subutex and Suboxone until October 2002). It was only floating around experimentally at a select few detox centers and specialized clinics.

Cobain's Response: Cobain wrote heavily about the drug in his personal journals, noting that it was the only medication that relieved his severe, chronic stomach pain without making him feel high. He wrote: "I was introduced to buprenorphine, which I found alleviates the pain within minutes... It acts as an opiate, but it doesn't get you high."

The Tragic End of Treatment: Cobain successfully used an increasingly smaller dose of the medication for about nine months. However, in August 1993, Dr. Fremont suddenly passed away. Because the drug was experimental and illegal for addiction treatment at the time, Cobain's supply was instantly cut off. Without access to the medication, his chronic pain and severe withdrawal symptoms returned, leading directly to his final, fatal relapse into heroin use. —NOTE: ARTICLE SUGGEST FATAL RELAPSE.

"Love attempted to treat her husband by injecting him with buprenorphine, an illegal drug sometimes used to bring people out of heroin overdoses"

While conventional, medically sound addiction treatment requires strict clinical isolation, comprehensive behavioral modification, and a gradual weaning from chemical dependency in a controlled environment, affluent Hollywood elites often so sought to bypass this rigorous discomfort. They demanded discretion, luxury, and the ability to dictate the terms of their own recovery. The result was the hotel detox, a dangerous practice pioneered in the 1980s by maverick physician Dr. Robert P. Freemont and subsequently perfected by prominent Beverly Hills figures like Dr. David Kipper.

The methodology of the hotel detox was fundamentally contradictory to the accepted medical standards of addiction recovery. Rather than checking into a highly structured, licensed facility like the Betty Ford Center or Sierra Tucson-which typically cost around $12,000 to $20,000 for a comprehensive 30-day program-wealthy addicts would rent massive luxury suites at the Peninsula Hotel or the Four Seasons, paying up to $800 a night for the room alone. Physicians like Dr. Kipper would then charge exorbitant supplemental fees-ranging from $10,000 to $19,000 per week-merely to administer the "detox". The pharmacological reality of these hotel programs was rarely about genuine detoxification; it was essentially about substitute dependency. Patients attempting to kick illicit heroin or cocaine habits were frequently provided with massive, immediate refills of powerful pharmaceutical narcotics. Dr. Kipper, for example, was later investigated by the California Medical Board for his highly controversial practices. The board accused him of operating an unlicensed detox program and improperly using the synthetic opiate buprenorphine. In one high-profile instance, Kipper allegedly administered 13,000 doses of more than 30 different drugs-including buprenorphine, the stimulant Dexedrine, the tranquilizer Valium, and powerful anti-psychotics like Zyprexa over the course of one year