Fentanyl overdoses

[Gail]

Our area has seen quite a few Fentanyl overdoses recently, and it is hitting the recreational drug users. Is this the case where you live, too?

:(

[B/W Photodude]

Is this the case where you live, too?

 

Don't know if this is a new "discipline," but ...

Geography and drug abuse

Certain areas of the country or even the state in which you live seem to have higher rates of reported drug abuse.  Many wonder what these trends are and may even move or relocate accordingly.  For instance, some cities may have a reputation for having a lot of heavy drinkers, while other cities may be known for meth labs.  Often, people in rural communities report that there is drug abuse in their community since, “there is nothing else to do.”

http://turningpointcenters.com/blog/geography-and-drug-abuse/

[rudywoofs (Pam)]

Fentanyl's a bad one.  Not only is it more potent than heroin, but it can be absorbed through the skin and airborne powder can be inhaled and absorbed.  It's a big problem that many don't realize...

[Gregory Matthews]

Pam is correct. Fentanyl is nothing to be played with.

[Naomi]

Is this the same stuff that they put into the pain patches?  Should a person be of concern if they have been prescribed patches to use?

Edited August 15, 2015 by Naomi

[B/W Photodude]

Is this the same stuff that they put into the pain patches?  Should a person be of concern if they have been prescribed patches to use?

You should be concerned if you are abusing a drug. If prescribed the drug and your progress is monitored by a health professional, relax. Fentanyl is not usually going to be the first opioid you have been prescribed. "Opioid virgins" using the drug without medical supervision are the ones needing to be concerned.

Fentanyl is one of the medicines that get put into patches.

[Lauralea]

Is this the same stuff that they put into the pain patches?  Should a person be of concern if they have been prescribed patches to use?

Properly prescribed prescription medications may still have very severe side effects in some cases and this is a drug with the potential to cause serious harm and should be carefully monitored and only taken if essential. If someone has chronic pain due to a non life threatening illness and is planning on taking this indefinitely, it would probably be good to go to a pain clinic- a specialty center to treat pain- and see if they had other effective options available.  If someone has a condition which is more serious such as cancer where the pain can only be controlled by this drug it should be monitored carefully.

Edited August 15, 2015 by Lauralea

[Naomi]

Good advice ... thank you.  

[B/W Photodude]

All that said, Fentanyl is one that I would less be concerned about abusing. There are others out there with far more devastating side effects. Actually, Fentanyl doesn't have that many side effects other than overdosage. Of course, the potential downside to overdosing is death or a permanent vegetative state if you are found. This is very unlikely for a prescribed patch user. Those injecting can be in more serious trouble.

[Gerr]

ANY medication can be dangerous if not used properly.  Fentanyl is a useful analgesic if not abused.

[Deaconess]

I remember hearing of a case where changing application sites, as well as changing caregivers, were a problem when it was found that one person had multiple patches left on....     It did resolve the person's unexplained low blood pressure....       Pain clinics have become so tightly regulated in our state that someone would need to be strongly committed to receiving pain relief to jump through the hoops (ie. even legitimate patients would need to submit to drug testing on a very regular basis because of the incentive for abuse).    Of course, I occasionally hear of the people who get caught helping themselves to medications in a professional setting.    I am not aware of the pulse point of illegal drug use other than what I read in the news, but I am positive that Fentanyl will cause more and more deaths if its on the street.   

Edited August 15, 2015 by Deaconess

[B/W Photodude]

ANY medication can be dangerous if not used properly.  Fentanyl is a useful analgesic if not abused.

Certainly was one of my favorites to use for pain and sedation. Of course, I always had monitoring equipment for safety. It is a short duration medication. Not sure why people would pay good money on the street for such a short high. Patches are a different story.

[Gail]

Certainly was one of my favorites to use for pain and sedation. Of course, I always had monitoring equipment for safety. It is a short duration medication. Not sure why people would pay good money on the street for such a short high. Patches are a different story.

My understanding is that people got what they thought was going to be heroin or some other drug. What they bought was diluted with the Fentanyl.

[LifeHiscost]

ANY medication can be dangerous if not used properly.  Fentanyl is a useful analgesic if not abused.

May I suggest even properly prescribed and used drugs can lead to a living death sentence.

  

 

    100,000 Deaths Per Year In The U.S. Caused By Prescription Drugs

  

According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), 100,000 Americans die from reactions to prescription drugs each year, making this the fourth leading cause of death in the U.S. The death toll from ILLEGAL drugs stands at 10,000. Houston (and every other part of the country), we have a problem….

 

The side effects of prescription medication can be horrific. Is it really worth taking medication if the cure is worse than the disease?

Here 26 side effects that come with many prescription drugs currently on the market.

 Drainage, crusting, or oozing of your eyes or eyelids

Swollen, black, or “hairy” tongue
Changes in the shape or location of body fat
Decrease in testicle size
Sores or swelling in your rectal or genital area
Blue lips or fingernails
Purple spots on your skin
White patches or sores inside your mouth or on your lips
Irregular back-and- forth movements of your eyes
Enlarged breasts in males.
Unusual risk-taking behavior, no fear of danger
Extreme fear
Hallucinations, fainting, coma
Fussiness, irritability, crying for an hour or longer
Paralysis
Thoracic Hematoma (bleeding into your chest)
A blood clot in your lung
Liver damage
Kidney damage
A lump in your breast
Decreased bone marrow function
Congestive heart failure
Shingles
Nerve pain lasting for several weeks or months
Bleeding that will not stop
Coughing up blood or vomit that looks like coffee grounds
One drug on the market, EvaMist — a treatment for menopause symptoms such as hot flashes — has possible side effects that include cancer, stroke, heart attack, blood clots, and dementia!

But this is only a partial list of the potential side effects of prescription drugs. There are, unfortunately, many more out there.

   Compare this to the death toll from illegal drugs — which is about 10,000 per year — and you begin to see the magnitude of the problem.  

http://yournewswire.com/100000-deaths-per-year-in-the-u-s-caused-by-prescription-drugs/

  God is Love!  Jesus saves! 

[Lauralea]

Fentanyl patches can cause death and may be more likely to do so than the oral Fentanyl.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19918162

Some other possible side effects of Fentanyl patches.

http://www.mayoclinic.org/drugs-supplements/fentanyl-transdermal-route/precautions/drg-20068152

[Gerr]

 

May I suggest even properly prescribed and used drugs can lead to a living death sentence.

 

 

http://yournewswire.com/100000-deaths-per-year-in-the-u-s-caused-by-prescription-drugs/

  God is Love!  Jesus saves! 

It can also mean life and relief.

[Jeannieb43]

I 2006 I had total knee replacement surgery.   The post-op period was extremely painful for me.   My orthopedic surgeon didn't want to give me anything stronger than IM Demerol, so he called in a pain specialist.   This doctor put me on a machine which I could control to give me doses of Fentanyl periodically.   The pain specialist told me I could use this drug for no longer than 3 days, because "it is very addictive."    I was happy to be able to ease the pain for three days, and after that I didn't need it any longer.   I had exercised the new knee joint and it was working properly by then.

 

But my use of Fentanyl was carefully managed, by a trained specialist who knew that drug.  I was lucky; I had no ill effects.

 

[B/W Photodude]

While patches are listed as causing problems, much of my reading indicates it would be inappropriate to prescribe the patch out of a Dr.s office, and I agree with this. It should only be done inpatient where someone can be monitored and after determining the total amount of painkillers used over the course of a day. Then a fraction of that amount would be covered by the Fentanyl patch with meds for breakthrough pain.

Do keep in mind that a significant number of patients being given Fentanyl patches are those being cared for under hospice rules and for whom the usual concerns of side effects are irrelevant. Are you really going to be concerned whether someone is going to become addicted when they are going to die?

I would suspect that many who get into trouble with these patches are those who steal from someone who really needs them and being "opioid naive" are overdosed with tragic results. And there are those careless with the care of someone, both in and out of the hospital, on the patch who stick on more patches without removing the old ones. 

http://americanhospice.org/caregiving/use-of-opiates-to-manage-pain-in-the-seriously-and-terminally-ill-patient/

I would add that pain control in the hospital has been woefully poorly managed and people suffer needlessly under the staff fears of turning people into addicts. Unless they are a drug seeker, that is unlikely to happen with good management of medications. Pain levels are now considered the 5th vital sign and hospitals are monitored by accrediting agencies such as JCAHO for the proper assessment and management of pain.

[B/W Photodude]

My orthopedic surgeon didn't want to give me anything stronger than IM Demerol, so he called in a pain specialist.   This doctor put me on a machine which I could control to give me doses of Fentanyl periodically.

You were fortunate that your Dr surrendered that part of your care to an expert in pain. Some doctors don't seem to know better than use Demerol which really should not be used for pain. Many hospitals have declared themselves "Demerol free zones." In an up to date hospital, the only acceptable use for Demerol is in the "shiver protocols" for people being put on cooling blankets to cool down their body temperatures.

[Bravus]

Wikipedia sez: "Fentanyl is approximately 80 to 100 times more potent than morphine and roughly 40 to 50 times more potent than pharmaceutical grade (100% pure) heroin."

Lot less margin for error with overdose for a recreational user with something that potent. With heroin, you could get it wrong by a bigger margin and survive.

[Liz]

Our area has seen quite a few Fentanyl overdoses recently, and it is hitting the recreational drug users. Is this the case where you live, too?

:(

I haven't heard too much about Fentanyl OD's, but K2 is rampant here.

[B/W Photodude]

Wikipedia sez: "Fentanyl is approximately 80 to 100 times more potent than morphine and roughly 40 to 50 times more potent than pharmaceutical grade (100% pure) heroin."

While milligram per milligram, Fentanyl is more powerful, it is not packaged that way. A vial is usually going to have one dose per vial. Multi-dose vials of narcotics are not in great use because it makes record keeping more difficult. Most people are probably not aware of how stringent and carefully narcotics are in a hospital setting.

[rudywoofs (Pam)]

Fentanyl isn't available just from medical facilities.  It's being illegally distributed from other countries.  Nobody is getting drug administration warnings when they buy Fentanyl from those sources.

The US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) has issued a nationwide alert about the dangers of the narcotic fentanyl and fentanyl analogues/compounds.

According to the DEA, the drug, which is often used in anesthesia to prevent pain after surgery or other procedures, is commonly laced in heroin, causing significant problems across the country, particularly because heroin abuse has increased.

"Drug incidents and overdoses related to fentanyl are occurring at an alarming rate throughout the United States and represent a significant threat to public health and safety," DEA administrator Michele M. Leonhart said in a statement.

"Often laced in heroin, fentanyl and fentanyl analogues produced in illicit, clandestine labs are up to 100 times more powerful than morphine and 30 to 50 times more powerful than heroin," she added.

The DEA reports that in the last 2 years, the DEA has seen a significant resurgence in fentanyl-related seizures. According to the National Forensic Laboratory Information System, state and local laboratories reported 3344 fentanyl submissions in 2014, up from 942 in 2013. In addition, the DEA has identified 15 other fentanyl-related compounds.

 

The DEA reports that in 2014, law enforcement operations involving fentanyl in the United States were significant, particularly in the northeast and in California, which included one 12-kg seizure. The fentanyl from these seizures originated from Mexican drug trafficking organizations.

The DEA also reports that globally, fentanyl abuse has increased during the past 2 years in Russia, the Ukraine, Sweden, and Denmark. Mexican authorities have seized fentanyl laboratories there, and intelligence has indicated that the precursor chemicals came from companies in Mexico, Germany, Japan, and China.

This is not the first time fentanyl has posed such a threat to public health and safety. Between 2005 and 2007, more than 1000 US deaths were attributed to fentanyl ― many of which occurred in Chicago, Detroit, and Philadelphia. The source of that fentanyl was traced to a single laboratory in Mexico. When that laboratory was identified and dismantled, the surge ended.

 

from Medscape News, March 2015

[B/W Photodude]

While many may be dying from Fentanyl when using it illegally, I can think of several other street drugs that have even more gruesome outcomes.

One of the problems for non-medical grade drugs is that you have no way of knowing the strength of the drug, the manufacturing process, what other chemicals are used to make the drug, and how successful removing the other chemicals from the drug are.

Really making the picture really bad is how desperate drug users are to get high and what they will do to get high. One drug out there is "sherms." Various opinions are out there for this one, but it is usually considered to be a tobacco or marijuana cigarette dipped into a solution of embalming fluid and PCP. Some funeral homes have been broken into in order to steal the embalming fluids.

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2009/08/_syracuse_ny_the.html

Another problem is the drug manufacture will attempt to make "designer drugs" in order to get around drug laws, A few atoms twisted on the molecule and it becomes legal until the law catches up to them. This was disasterous to a group of addicts several decades ago in California:

https://mmcneuro.wordpress.com/2013/12/16/frozen-addicts-an-unusal-twist-on-drug-induced-parkinsonism/

The following video is long but very interesting:

Another drug coming ashore from Russia is Desomorphine. What is dangerous from this drug are the chemicals left behind in the manufacturing proces.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desomorphine

This video looks at how the heroin trade operated in Russia as a result of their involvment in the Afghan war. And goes into the rise of Krokodil. It details drug rehabilitation in a country that allocates little money for drug rehab and the bleakness of Russian life today for some. It is a bit on the long side.

This video is not terribly gruesome to watch but goes into the life of Krokodil users.

The next one, I did not put the link and you will have to put the title into YouTubes search bar yourself. I though the first part of the movie was from the set of the "Dawn of the Dead" and the person being treated was a wax dummie. Then she moved. Doesn't get much sadder on the human condition in this day and age.

The Effects of Krokodil - Real Life Zombies

The Drug Krokodil is a cheaper version of Heroin and is easy to make. It first surfaced in Russia and now is appearing all around the world including North American countries the United States, Mexico and Canada. It rots your flesh from the inside mainly around the areas injected but also rot in various places.

"If you want a way to die, this is the drug."

Equally disturbing are those who claim drug use is a "victimless crime." I say, 'Tell that to the more than 50,000 citizens of Mexico who have been slaughtered by the cartels, not to mention the amounts of the indigenous people of South America who have been enslaved by the cocaine producers.

[Deaconess]

One of my friends mentioned how the fake zombie movies might not be too, too far from reality in the future if one considers how many adults and kids are drugged up via prescription and illegal means.... She kind of has a point and it is food for thought.....