Thanks Elle, you deserve +1 for that
And I am inclined to agree about epidemic. Or at least a disease. Thing is, its one thing having to rely on a commodity which must come in by shipment from overseas (well, yes, you CAN, never mind what people say, grow poppies, good poppies, here in the UK climate, even here in the northern part of england, I speak from experience of those poppies, and the stuff thats come out of them is absolutely wonderful, untainted by cuts, and I daresay, even without its conversion to an acylated morphine derivative of any stripe, I'm kind of like a wine buff in the sense of I have my very distinct tastes in such areas, and even de-codeinated (to avoid pulmonary oedema if injected) un-altered, but otherwise containing the rest of the minor alkaloids in the latex, its very different, used as pod tea, as opium, or as a full-spectrum cleaned up shootable isolate, although thats a real luxury to have any, as its only available in very limited amounts, for that portion of the year when the poppies flower and produce their pods, meaning you have to plant your seeds out and look after the kiddiwinks for the whole year, and then do the tech work afterwards. Its the full-fat cream on top of the buttermilk, for a dairy farmer, if that makes sense. The kind of thing that anyone who creates any, is never going to send to market but is going to drink themselves and with their families. Not that my family, mind you, would likely accept an offer of shared poppy products..but yeah, many say it can't be done. It can, and can be done WELL. But barring actual fields, farmer-sized field-fields, I mean, it really is the special treat earned as a reward for all that hiking miles to the outdoor grows, carrying backpacks full of heavy water tanks, the weeding, feeding, hand pollinating with paintbrushes if breeding hybrids etc)
Yeah I wouldn't object to carrying a vial and a hypo if I'm with people. But not for use on me. I'd probably do as much damage as an OD, only for reverse reasons. I already have some pretty severe GI issues, unrelated to opioids, but the strength of the vomiting if it occurs , when I do have the attacks has put me in hospital on its own. I'd be afraid something would tear and I'd end up with an internal bleed from how heavily that would make me puke.
Hell I am thinking of making a small card to keep in my wallet to warn them that I don't consent to having it used on me, if found for some reason bradycardic and with pinpoint pupils. ALTHOUGH my pupils thankfully do not pin, save on some REALLLY heavy hitting and heavily dosed opioid.
There is a guy who we sometimes use a bit together, who used to inject, years ago, but it was a long time ago for him, and he smokes it when he uses it, and theres not nearly as much risk (assuming it IS indeed what its claimed to be, mind you), with vaporising and taking it slowly as thee is with any other method going.
In the case of fentanyl or any of the various derivatives of it about now and then thats probably different. Not sure how common it is in these parts. Your in the US, right elle? or is it canada? still close enough in terms of moving a commodity originating in one and putting it in the other. Do you work with users or something elle? you seem quite aware of it, and you are not a person who takes it yourself, or are you? if you don't want to say, thats fine of course:)
Theres been some iffy developments too in that world. ACRYLfentanil is the new one. Yeah, with an acryloyl group, going to be reactive as hell, probably polymerize spontaneously if its not in too dilute a solution to really stand a great deal of chance, statistically speaking for one molecule to meet another. Possible michaels acceptor too, could quite easily see that being the case, and the thought of an irreversible opioid receptor binding ligand is...quite horrifying really, because one would have to grow new binding sites to replace those irreversibly bound and desensitized, taken out of play permanently as surely as a blast from a sawnoff to the head would do so. Albeit less fatally, and a lot more WISH-IT-WAS fatally.
They do exist, covalently binding opioid agonists and antagonists like that, using such means as a hydrazine, an isothiocyanate, isocyanate etc. But they are used for research and not in people.
I've heard some really BAD news y'know, too in the US. Apparently krokidil is starting to turn up from time to time, a truly noxious mixture of the products, byproducts come from the reaction itself and are used by these poor russian krokodil addicts, there being no help in russia that I know of, the govt just takes the attitude let the bastards fucking die, sooner the better. They call it krokodil (russian for 'crocodile') because of the horrendous effects on the users, including a scaly thickened skin discoloration like the skin of, surprise surprise, a crocodile. That and it eats people, right down to the bone. Theres some harrowing shit in the way of pictures and videos of these poor bastards who still are using despite their entire musculature being corroded away by this ungodly toxic witches brew of slops, like one poor girl, you can see right from elbow to wrist, her fucking radius and ulna. God knows how even with opiates anyone could bear that, must be agony. Average lifespan is 6 months, at longest, a year if your unlucky enough survive so long, this is from first use to dropping dead. Don't go looking for the videos unless you can tolerate what you might see knowing that the 'what' is both hideous and heartbreaking in equal measure.
I'd be far far far more able to make use of naltrexone than naloxone, because in tiny, tiny doses below levels that just block opioid binding, its able via an interaction with filamin-a to block the subset of opioid receptors (Mu type I mean, possibly kappa, delta I don't think so) that undergo a switch in g-protein effectors from the inhibitory Gi/o to Gs and Gβγ which occurs with tolerance and in addiction (to opioids), and even to reverse it as well. Have read some human trials, one with a guy dropping off 100s of mg of dilaudid/hydromorphone multiple times a day (its very very shortlived although strong as hell, not that I've had it personally, but I know that much about it and enough for my flabber to be well and truly ghasted, when he dropped off most of it in about a week, and used codeine instead by way of a taper, and did it, without much issue, so damn quickly that if the medical profession had enforced that speed of drop, they would absolutely need suing for massive damages.
Doses used for it are tiny though, a couple of micrograms a dose when its got up to speed and is tolerated, starting from a few hundred nanograms.
It actually wouldn't surprise me much if this stuff was part fent, but because theres also a considerable amount of real H, that I can taste for sure, I'd know that taste alright. But its definitely not ALL fent, if theres any in there, because the stuff has the legs of a quadriplegic nematode. And on its own its shite. At least I think so and plenty of others do, theres nothing warm or pleasant about it to me., yes, it will alleviate physical pain if there be enough of it and yes it of course will prevent an opioid dependent patient withdrawing if the conventional opioid be not present. But thats ALL its good for as far as I'm concerned, certainly the only thing it alone is good for. I'd accept it as a gift, but I most certainly would not buy it.
With me often? or near me often? I can't think of anyone.
