A popular Russian drug has made its way to the United States.
This week, Arizona Poison Control Center saw the country’s first reports of krokodil.
The drug has been around for sometime in Russia. It’s being billed as a cheaper alternative to heroine. The drug reportedly only takes minutes to make at home. The drug is made up of a combination of codine, iodine, gasoline, paint thinner, hydrochloric acid, lighter fluid and red phosphorus.
Krokodil, otherwise known as desomorphine, is similar to other opioids, however it has a shorter cycle. Users of the drug are typically only high for approximately 1 hour.
The drug gets its name from the Russian word for crocodile because users of the drug often develop scaly, green skin that can fall off in sheets, exposing bone and muscle tissue underneath. Literally.
In addition, the drug causes your blood vessels to rupture, causing the surrounding tissue to die.
This is an effect of shooting Krokodil in the tweet below. pic.twitter.com/gge0GjEYcy
— Gypsy Dee (@Gypsy__) September 26, 2013
As if all that wasn’t horrific enough, users are often afflicted with abscesses, gangrene and other types of infection.
Please don’t use Krokidil. pic.twitter.com/5xeOCSFxoi
— Gypsy Dee (@Gypsy__) September 26, 2013
According to a 2011 profile of the drug in Time magazine, the average krokodil user has a lifespan of 2 years. Why would one take a drug that causes such horrific results? The answer is easy, it’s a cheap substitution for heroine and one user was quoted as saying that she took the drug just one time as a replacement for heroine and became too addicted to stop. What makes matters worse is that the drug has month-long withdrawal symptoms that are nearly as horrific as the drug itself.
The drug is being coined as “the most horrific drug in the world” and as a “zombie drug.”
Though only 2 confirmed cases have been reported, many fear this is only the beginning.