Something new to destroy more than brain cells

[MSTarot]

Was doing my normal Friday night internet hunt (looking for story ideas mostly) and I came across something that made even me cold.

Krokodil.

(Sorry, I wont post a links to this crap)

They are calling this the zombie drug. Mostly because you end up looking like one, before you OD yourself out the world in about a year.

It has been spreading across Russia since 2002. Two cases just recently turned up in an emergency room in Phoenix Arizona.

Now I've used drugs in my stories to add a bit of darkness to the storytelling but... not this shit. This stuff makes the bad side effects of crystal meth look like high school acne

Even if it wasn't in an erotic story I can't see a use for it as part of a story.


"Oh, you must be a Krokodil user... your arm Just FELL OFF!"

"Sorry, is this your finger?"



Now I've written some dark stories, but sweet laughter... I think reality just trumped me.

MST

 

[sr71plt]

Well . . . OK.

 

[slyc_willie]

Oooo . . . plot bunny. Me like.

Now I'm gonna have to do some research.

ETA: Described as a flesh-eating drug with qualities similar to heroin that rots flesh from the inside out. Looks promising.

 

[GorgeousGeekGirl]

The warning is making the rounds on Facebook also. I looked it up and it's documented on several unrelated websites. So far as I can tell, it's been to at least Arizona, Utah, and Chicago. It is truly horrific.

 

[soflabbwlvr]

I'm doing very well with conventional pharmaceuticals , thank you very much. But if my liquor store ever comes up empty, I'll let you know.

 

[slyc_willie]

The warning is making the rounds on Facebook also. I looked it up and it's documented on several unrelated websites. So far as I can tell, it's been to at least Arizona, Utah, and Chicago. It is truly horrific.

Humans will stop at nothing to destroy themselves.

I can't wait until the zombie apocalypse theorists take hold of this and proclaim Krokodil as the trigger for Armageddon.

 

[emap]

Hell I am surprised they haven't already. I mean 2012 didn't pan out that well for them.

I have heard of that shit before and it is frightening that people will take that. I mean it's like heroin, probably harder to get, and then makes your skin rot and fall off. Some drugs have bad side effects, and then there is that stuff. The only thing with a worse side effect is some of the prescription stuff they give to older people, side effect of may cause death. At least all you do is fall over and die, that shit will make you want to long before you do.

 

[slyc_willie]

Hell I am surprised they haven't already. I mean 2012 didn't pan out that well for them.

I have heard of that shit before and it is frightening that people will take that. I mean it's like heroin, probably harder to get, and then makes your skin rot and fall off. Some drugs have bad side effects, and then there is that stuff. The only thing with a worse side effect is some of the prescription stuff they give to older people, side effect of may cause death. At least all you do is fall over and die, that shit will make you want to long before you do.

Actually, according to the articles I've been reading, Krokodil is easier to acquire than heroin. It's a hell of a lot cheaper, apparently, because it's basically a mash-up of morphine-based painkillers such as vicodin or codine, mixed with a "huffer" type agent like paint thinner or gasoline.

I can see how addicts would be desperate to get a fix. "Holy shit! My foot's rotting away! I need a fix so I won't feel or care about it!"

Perpetuum ad nauseum.

 

[heevory]

OH! I just love popping bubble wrap!!

 

[MSTarot]

Krokodil is easier to acquire than heroin. It's a hell of a lot cheaper,

I can see how addicts would be desperate to get a fix. "Holy shit! My foot's rotting away! I need a fix so I won't feel or care about it!"

Some of the pages I was reading showed that it takes as much as a month of withdrawal symptoms to get off the stuff. A month of heroin withdrawals or go into the kitchen and 'cook' up some more?

Another one said it's fifty times as strong as morphine but the high last half as long as heroin. So you're constantly shooting up to keep ahead of the withdrawal symptoms.

Codeine in Russia is an over the counter drug. That one of the reasons it's gotten so bad there. Costs abut $8.00 to get a fix.

And I thought kids huffing sewer gas was the top of the list of dumb shit people will do to get high.

Go buy a bottle of Thunderbird, MD 20/20 or 'Ripple' least ways then the only thing being eaten away is your liver.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Hollywood plastic surgery is prolly as bad.

 

[Handley_Page]

Krokodil

That was the name of a very funny piss-taking newspaper and cartoon comic in Russia in the 60s.

 

[patientlee]

You gotta love a drug with weight loss as a side effect! (How much does the average foot weigh?)

 

[desertslave]

The warning is making the rounds on Facebook also. I looked it up and it's documented on several unrelated websites. So far as I can tell, it's been to at least Arizona, Utah, and Chicago. It is truly horrific.

Yup, they've been running news stories on it here in AZ for a few weeks. Now, I've partaken of a few chemicals in my day, but I simply cannot comprehend ANY sort of reason for wanting to try this shit, let alone continue using.

 

[3113]

ETA: Described as a flesh-eating drug with qualities similar to heroin that rots flesh from the inside out. Looks promising.

And people seriously take this shit?

 

[slyc_willie]

Yup, they've been running news stories on it here in AZ for a few weeks. Now, I've partaken of a few chemicals in my day, but I simply cannot comprehend ANY sort of reason for wanting to try this shit, let alone continue using.

From the addict's point of view, it's a cheap alternative to the more expensive heroin. Plus, they no doubt tell themselves -- or are told -- that the media is lying about or exaggerating the side effects, that is, if they are able to think about their choice at all. For full-blown addicts, reason and logic are luxuries. All they want is what has become a basic, primal need to get high.

The more research I do on this, the more fascinating it becomes. Too bad plague-scenario apocalypse stories are so overdone (especially at the moment), otherwise Krokodil would be the perfect starting point.

Hmm, maybe I could do the small-town-as-test-case scenario for a super-Krokodil chemical weapon . . . .

 

[PennLady]

Hmm, maybe I could do the small-town-as-test-case scenario for a super-Krokodil chemical weapon . . . .

Or perhaps there's an impurity -- or additive -- in the krokodil as someone attempts to cut it to get more money for a worse product, and the consequences are more than expected...

 

[StrangeLife]

It doesn't seem to be the drug that's causing the users to turn zombie.

Rather it's infections caused by contamination due to poor hygiene during the synthesis. The simple recipe is causing a large part of the users to make it themselves at home and shoot up with the product right away. And drug addicts aren't known for their clean living conditions, so after the high they might wake up to a nice case of blood poisoning or gangrene.


That's why you should always reject amateur drugs and support your local drug dealer...

"Get yo rock from South-side Slim. Its fer ya own safety"

 

[slyc_willie]

It doesn't seem to be the drug that's causing the users to turn zombie.

Rather it's infections caused by contamination due to poor hygiene during the synthesis. The simple recipe is causing a large part of the users to make it themselves at home and shoot up with the product right away. And drug addicts aren't known for their clean living conditions, so after the high they might wake up to a nice case of blood poisoning or gangrene.


That's why you should always reject amateur drugs and support your local drug dealer...

"Get yo rock from South-side Slim. Its fer ya own safety"

The gangrene and sores are certainly the result of infection, but it does seem that there's something in Krokodil that makes the user more prone to these kinds of rotting infections. Granted, the more severe effects take time to develop (a few months of habitual use, it appears), but from the research it looks like the occurrence rate is much higher for Krokodil than for any other injection-based drug. It's as if the injection site itself becomes highly weakened to outside infections, and once an infection takes hold, it becomes very much like the results of flesh-eating bacteria.

I'm way too interested in this.

ETA: Apparently, a popular way of synthesizing desomorphine (krokodil) from codeine tablets involves the use of both hydrochloric acid and red phosphorous, some of which remains in the resulting chemical that is then injected. That probably accounts for the rapid tissue damage around the injection site, which according to several articles I found, usually begin just a few days after initial use (which assumes continuous injections over a period of at least 48 hours).

Average life expectancy for Krokodil addicts is between 1 and 3 years . . . .

 

[slyc_willie]

Or perhaps there's an impurity -- or additive -- in the krokodil as someone attempts to cut it to get more money for a worse product, and the consequences are more than expected...

I could see mixing the base drug with some other agent that extends the high . . . but also increases the rate of infection. Combine that with the numbing qualities of a good opiate high, and, poof! living zombies.

Now, how to make it communicable . . .

 

[Bramblethorn]

The gangrene and sores are certainly the result of infection, but it does seem that there's something in Krokodil that makes the user more prone to these kinds of rotting infections.

Wikipedia tells me it's usually made at home with OTC codeine, iodine, and red phosphorus. I can imagine that if you don't purify it well you'd end up with leftover iodine and/or phosphorus in the mix; neither of those are things I'd care to inject.

(If you want to feel better about your job, try googling "phossy jaw".)