it should be force-fed to liberal socialists On Aug 8, 12:00 pm, Travis <[email protected]> wrote: > ** > <http://fellowshipofminds.wordpress.com/author/eowyn2/> Warning: New > Synthetic Opiate "Krokodil" Rots Away > Flesh<http://fellowshipofminds.wordpress.com/2011/08/08/warning-new-synthet...> > *Eowyn <http://fellowshipofminds.wordpress.com/author/eowyn2/>* | August 8, > 2011 at 4:00 am | Tags: > desomorphine<http://fellowshipofminds.wordpress.com/?tag=desomorphine>, > drug addiction <http://fellowshipofminds.wordpress.com/?tag=drug-addiction>, > heroin addicts <http://fellowshipofminds.wordpress.com/?tag=heroin-addicts>, > Russia <http://fellowshipofminds.wordpress.com/?tag=russia> | Categories: > crime <http://fellowshipofminds.wordpress.com/?cat=34945349>, God's > creation<http://fellowshipofminds.wordpress.com/?cat=354016>, > Health Care <http://fellowshipofminds.wordpress.com/?cat=20052>, Just Plain > Nuts <http://fellowshipofminds.wordpress.com/?cat=2053694> | > URL:http://wp.me/pKuKY-8xy > > Russians are committing suicide via drug addiction. The country has more > heroin users than any country in the world. Now, Russians are turning to a > deadly synthetic opiate -- a desomorphine nicknamed "Krokodil" (crocodile) > -- which they concoct in their kitchen sink. > > No doubt Krokodil will soon arrive on America's shores, if it hasn't > already. > > H/t my friend Sol. > > *~Eowyn* > [image: A heroin user prepares the drug in Zhukovsky, near Moscow]*A heroin > user prepares the drug in Zhukovsky, near Moscow* Krokodil: The drug that > eats > junkies<http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/krokodil-the-drug-that...> > > A home-made heroin substitute is having a horrific effect on thousands of > Russia's drug addicts > > By Shaun Walker - UK's The Independent - June 22, 2011Oleg glances furtively > around him and, confident that nobody is watching, slips inside the entrance > to a decaying Soviet-era block of flats, where Sasha is waiting for him. > Ensconced in the dingy kitchen of one of the apartments, they empty the > contents of a blue carrier bag that Oleg has brought with him – painkillers, > iodine, lighter fluid, industrial cleaning oil, and an array of vials, > syringes, and cooking implements. > > Half an hour later, after much boiling, distilling, mixing and shaking, what > remains is a caramel-coloured gunge held in the end of a syringe, and the > acrid smell of burnt iodine in the air. Sasha fixes a dirty needle to the > syringe and looks for a vein in his bruised forearm. After some time, he > finds a suitable place, and hands the syringe to Oleg, telling him to inject > the fluid. He closes his eyes, and takes the hit. > > *Russia has more heroin users than any other country in the world – up to > two million*, according to unofficial estimates. For most, their lot is a > life of crime, stints in prison, probable contraction of HIV and hepatitis > C, and an early death. As efforts to stem the flow of Afghan heroin into > Russia bring some limited success, and the street price of the drug goes up, > for those addicts who can't afford their next hit, an even more terrifying > spectre has raised its head. > > The home-made drug that Oleg and Sasha inject is known as *krokodil, or > "crocodile". It is desomorphine, a synthetic opiate many times more powerful > than heroin that is created from a complex chain of mixing and chemical > reactions*, which the addicts perform from memory several times a day. While > *heroin costs from £20 to £60 per dose, desomorphine can be "cooked" from > codeine-based headache pills that cost £2 per pack, and other household > ingredients available cheaply* from the markets. > > It is a drug for the poor, and its effects are horrific. It was given its > reptilian name because its poisonous ingredients quickly turn the skin > scaly. Worse follows. Oleg and Sasha have not been using for long, but Oleg > has rotting sores on the back of his neck. > > "If you miss the vein, that's an abscess straight away," says Sasha. > Essentially, they are injecting poison directly into their flesh. One of > their friends, in a neighbouring apartment block, is further down the line. > > "She won't go to hospital, she just keeps injecting. Her flesh is falling > off and she can hardly move anymore," says Sasha. Photographs of late-stage > krokodil addicts are disturbing in the extreme. Flesh goes grey and peels > away to leave bones exposed. *People literally rot to death.* > > Russian heroin addicts first discovered how to make krokodil around four > years ago, and there has been a steady rise in consumption, with a sudden > peak in recent months. "Over the past five years, sales of codeine-based > tablets have grown by dozens of times," says Viktor Ivanov, the head of > Russia's Drug Control Agency. "It's pretty obvious that it's not because > everyone has suddenly developed headaches." > > *Heroin addiction kills 30,000 people per year in Russia – a third of global > deaths from the drug* – but now there is the added problem of krokodil. Mr > Ivanov recalled a recent visit to a drug-treatment centre in Western > Siberia. "They told me that two years ago almost all their drug users used > heroin," said the drugs tsar. "Now, more than half of them are on > desomorphine." > > He estimates that overall, *around 5 per cent of Russian drug users are on > krokodil and other home-made drugs, which works out at about 100,000 people. > It's a huge, hidden epidemic* – worse in the really isolated parts of Russia > where supplies of heroin are patchy – but palpable even in cities such as > Tver. > > It has a population of half a million, and is a couple of hours by train > from Moscow, en route to St Petersburg. Its city centre, sat on the River > Volga, is lined with pretty, Tsarist-era buildings, but the suburbs are > miserable. People sit on cracked wooden benches in a weed-infested "park", > gulping cans of Jaguar, an alcoholic energy drink. In the background, there > are rows of crumbling apartment blocks. The shops and restaurants of Moscow > are a world away; for a treat, people take the bus to the McDonald's by the > train station. > > In the city's main drug treatment centre, Artyom Yegorov talks of the > devastation that krokodil is causing. "*Desomorphine causes the strongest > levels of addiction, and is the hardest to cure*," says the young doctor, > sitting in a treatment room in the scruffy clinic, below a picture of Hugh > Laurie as Dr House. > > "With heroin withdrawal, the main symptoms last for five to 10 days. After > that there is still a big danger of relapse but the physical pain will be > gone. With krokodil, the pain can last up to a month, and it's unbearable. > They have to be injected with extremely strong tranquilisers just to keep > them from passing out from the pain." > > Dr Yegorov says krokodil users are instantly identifiable because of their > smell. "It's that smell of iodine that infuses all their clothes," he says. > "There's no way to wash it out, all you can do is burn the clothes. Any flat > that has been used as a krokodil cooking house is best forgotten about as a > place to live. You'll never get that smell out of the flat." > > *Addicts in Tver say they never have any problems buying the key ingredient > for krokodil – codeine pills, which are sold without prescription. *"Once I > was trying to buy four packs, and the woman told me they could only sell two > to any one person," recalls one, with a laugh. "So I bought two packs, then > came back five minutes later and bought another two. Other than that, they > never refuse to sell it to us, even though they know what we're going to do > with it." The *solution, to many, is obvious: ban the sale of codeine > tablets, or at least make them prescription-only. But despite the > authorities being aware of the problem for well over a year, nothing has > been done. * > > President Dmitry Medvedev has called for websites which explain how to make > krokodil to be closed down, but he has not ordered the banning of the pills. > Last month, a spokesman for the ministry of health said that there were > plans to make codeine-based tablets available only on prescription, but that > it was impossible to introduce the measure quickly. *Opponents claim > lobbying by pharmaceutical companies has caused the inaction.* > > "A year ago we said that we need to introduce prescriptions," says Mr > Ivanov. "These tablets don't cost much but the profit margins are high. Some > pharmacies make up to 25 per cent of their profits from the sale of these > tablets. It's not in the interests of pharmaceutical companies or pharmacies > themselves to stop this, so the government needs to use its power to > regulate their sale." > > In addition to krokodil, there are reports of drug users injecting other > artificial mixes, and* the latest street drug is tropicamide. Used as eye > drops by ophthalmologists to dilate the pupils during eye examinations, *Dr > Yegorov says patients have no trouble getting hold of capsules of it for > about £2 per vial.* Injected, the drug has severe psychiatric effects and > brings on suicidal feelings.* > > "Addicts are being sold drugs by normal Russian women working in pharmacies, > who know exactly what they'll be used for," said Yevgeny Roizman, an > anti-drugs activist who was one of the first to talk publicly about the > krokodil issue earlier this year. "Selling them to boys the same age as > their own sons. Russians are killing Russians." > > Zhenya, quietly spoken and wearing dark glasses, agrees to tell his story > while I sit in the back of his car in a lay-by on the outskirts of Tver. He > managed to kick the habit, after spending weeks at a detox clinic > ,experiencing horrendous withdrawal symptoms that included seizures, a > 40-degree temperature and vomiting. He lost 14 teeth after his gums rotted > away, and contracted hepatitis C. > > But his fate is essentially a miraculous escape – after all, he's still > alive. Zhenya is from a small town outside Tver, and was a heroin addict for > a decade before he moved onto krokodil a year ago. Of the ten friends he > started injecting heroin with a decade ago, seven are dead. > > Unlike heroin, where the hit can last for several hours,* a krokodil high > only lasts between 90 minutes and two hours, says Zhenya. Given that the > "cooking" process takes at least half an hour, being a krokodil addict is > basically a full-time job.* > > "I remember one day, we cooked for three days straight," says one of > Zhenya's friends. "You don't sleep much when you're on krokodil, as you need > to wake up every couple of hours for another hit. At the time we were > cooking it at our place, and loads of people came round and pitched in. For > three days we just kept on making it. By the end, we all staggered out > yellow, exhausted and stinking of iodine." > > In Tver, most krokodil users inject the drug only when they run out of money > for heroin. As soon as they earn or steal enough, they go back to heroin. In > other more isolated regions of Russia, where heroin is more expensive and > people are poorer, the problem is worse. People become full-time krokodil > addicts, giving them a life expectancy of less than a year. > > Zhenya says every single addict he knows in his town has moved from heroin > to krokodil, because it's cheaper and easier to get hold of. "You can feel > how disgusting it is when you're doing it," he recalls. "You're dreaming of > heroin, of something that feels clean and not like poison. But you can't > afford it, so you keep doing the krokodil. Until you die." > > *Some of the names in this story have been changed* > > Add a comment to this > post<http://fellowshipofminds.wordpress.com/2011/08/08/warning-new-synthet...> > > [image: WordPress] > > WordPress.com <http://wordpress.com/> | Thanks for flying with WordPress! > Manage > Subscriptions<http://subscribe.wordpress.com/?key=5d39acfd19218362d540a3fc3dc3315d&;...>| > Unsubscribe<http://subscribe.wordpress.com/?key=5d39acfd19218362d540a3fc3dc3315d&;...>| > Publish text, photos, music, and videos by email using our Post > by Email <http://support.wordpress.com/post-by-email/> feature. > > *Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your > browser:*http://subscribe.wordpress.com
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