Last updated : November 11, 2024
The Most Horrifying Drug Has Hit America
A new synthetic drug originated from Russia has hit the streets of American cities and it has police officials and drug agencies alarmed and panicked. This new drug is known as “krokodil”, Russian for crocodile, and it is a synthetic heroin that causes scaly, greenish skin in its users. Thus far, there have been reports of use of this drug in Arizona, Illinois, Oklahoma and Ohio, and the consensus seems to be that this drug needs to be contained immediately before it causes an epidemic.
The Facts about Krokodil
Krokodil is considered highly addictive. The drug is deemed to be cheaper and much more potent and devastating as heroin. The chemical reaction Krokodil causes is unlike anything previously seen before. At the point of injection into the vein, the drug causes the skin to turn a greenish color and become scaly like the skin of a crocodile. Hence, the origin of the drug’s name.
Researchers have been able to determine that Krokodil is actually an opiate known as desomorphine. This opiate is very similar to oxycodone and heroin. However, it hits a user’s system a lot quicker and is significantly a lot more potent than morphine.
How is Krokodil Made?
Officials believe that the synthetic heroin is made by cooking crushed codeine pills with everyday household chemicals, such as lighter fluid, gasoline or paint thinner. Some believe that alcohol is used in the blend as well.
The Side Effects of Krokodil
It is believed that that the impurities in the household chemicals used in making the drug cause flesh decay. The home-made concocted drug poisons its users’ bodies from the very first injection.
Addicts pay dearly for this drug’s cheap high. Whenever Krokodil is injected into a user’s body, the blood vessels burst and surrounding tissue around the injection dies, with chunks of skin sometimes falling off all the way down to the bone.
Reportedly, after the injection of the drug, the user’s skin starts to feel like it was burned by a cigarette. From there the skin turns purple and develops blisters in approximately five to six days.
Krokodil destroys the veins and soft tissue of the users, which causes gangrene and abscesses to develop at a rapid pace. In the process, it turns the skin of users green or black in nature and causes scaly patches of dead and decaying skin.
Doctors say that Krokodil actually causes the users to start rotting from the inside out. Supposedly, intensive treatment and skin grafts are needed, but are often not enough to save the lives and limbs of users.
Users who become addicted to Krokodil may be signing their lives away. Some reports says that the average life span of a user of Krokodil is only two to five years. Other reports mark the typical life span of a user even lower at two to three years. In any event, the prospects are not good. Users who make it out alive, often do so with maimed arms and legs.
With side effects like these, it is no wonder why Krokodil has picked up another nickname: the zombie drug. And if it continues to spread, then the fears of police authorities may justified.
