(WARNING: Extremely graphic: See photos of the effects of krokodil)
It's called "the most horrible drug in the
world" -- and it's come to Illinois.
Dr. Abhin Singala, a specialist at
Presence St. Joseph Medical Center in the Chicago suburb of Joliet, said he's
treating three people who took "krokodil," a cheap heroin knockoff
from Russia known to cause such extreme gangrene and abscesses that a user's
muscles, tendons and bones can become exposed.
“If you want to kill yourself, this
is the way to do it,” Singla said according to the Sun-Times.
According to Joliet Patch, Singla is treating what appear to be
the first cases of krokodil reported in the Chicago metro area.
“As of late as last week, the first
cases – a few people in Utah and Arizona – were reported to have been using the
heroin-like drug, which rots the skin from the inside out,” Singala said in a
Tuesday press release. "It is a horrific way to get sick. The smell of
rotten flesh permeates the room. Intensive treatment and skin grafts are
required, but they often are not enough to save limbs or lives.”
While the drug has been in Russia for
at least a decade, krokodil is only now making its way to the states. The first reported instances of the
intravaneous drug cropped up in Arizona roughly two weeks ago.
Krokodil, named for the scaly green
appearance of skin once gangrene sets in, rose to popularity in Russia due to a
heroin shortage. Also known as desomorphine, the budget drug
(roughly one-tenth the cost of heroin) is made from codeine tablets combined
with substances like gasoline, paint thinner or lighter fluid.
As Forbes notes, however, desomorphine itself isn't responsible
for the "rotting from the inside-out" effect of krokodil;
the drug was in fact patented in the '30s and marketed in Switzerland under the
brand name Permonid.
The deadly effects from illicit version
of the painkiller, however, stem from the substances Forbes says "amateur
chemists" don't properly remove.
Still, those facts are of little
comfort to Illinois health officials. The collar counties outside Chicago
have seen an alarming spike in heroin deaths in the past few years.
The average life expectancy for a
krokodil addict, Singala said, is less than two years.
In Will County where Singala is
treating the krokodil cases, he warns "Will County's already
burgeoning heroin epidemic may have created a tolerance level to the point
where users are now looking for cheaper and better highs.”
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com
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