So Ya Wanna Ba A Junkie

So ya wanna be a junkie? The kindest thing you can do for yourself, your family, your community and your country is to blow your brains out.

Now. Do it right now.
Save everyone the trouble of putting up with your self-destructive BS and the yoyo-ing in and out of expensive drug rehab. Just put the gun to your temple or wait for the next bus to came barreling down the street, hunt for a high bridge or stick your head inside a garbage bag. Use your imagination.

Or hook up with a crocodile.

Russia has more heroin users than any other country in the world – up to two million, according to unofficial estimates. For most, their lot is a life of crime, stints in prison, probable contraction of HIV and hepatitis C, and an early death. As efforts to stem the flow of Afghan heroin into Russia bring some limited success, and the street price of the drug goes up, for those addicts who can't afford their next hit, an even more terrifying spectre has raised its head.

The home-made drug that Oleg and Sasha inject is known as krokodil, or "crocodile". It is desomorphine, a synthetic opiate many times more powerful than heroin that is created from a complex chain of mixing and chemical reactions, which the addicts perform from memory several times a day.

[...]It is a drug for the poor, and its effects are horrific. It was given its reptilian name because its poisonous ingredients quickly turn the skin scaly. Worse follows. Oleg and Sasha have not been using for long, but Oleg has rotting sores on the back of his neck.

And it's here, in America. It is made by mixing codeine with gasoline, paint thinner, iodine, hydrochloric acid and red phosphorous. After sustained abuse of this mixture, the skin starts to rot and eventually just falls away.

There are pictures (google "desomorphine addiction" if you're interested) of Russian addicts where both leg bones - tibia and fibula - are exposed as the rotting flesh and muscle have completely fallen off. Same thing for arms - the radial and ulnar bones completely exposed. I've never seen anything like it. It is truly a horror show.

Krokodil is responsible for killing 30,000 Russians a year where it has become very popular over the past four years, but two cases of desomorphine addiction were discovered in Arizona this week. Public health officials are worried that this is just the beginning. Desomorphine is extremely addictive, much more so than heroin and the detoxification process is three times as long. Codeine is not a controlled substance in Russia but in America it is regulated. Hopefully this will keep its use to a minimum.