A devastating new street drug is literally causing the flesh to rot right off the bone of its users.
The drug, called “crocodile” or “krokodil,” is a type of homemade desomorphine which is created by using codeine and other ingredients, such as gasoline, paint thinner, hydrochloric acid, iodine, and red phosphorus. In Russia, where its use originated, codeine was legal to purchase without a prescription until the government cracked down on it in 2012. Until then it surged in popularity because it was so easy to obtain the necessary ingredients.
When users inject the drug into a vein or muscle, it takes effect within a matter of minutes, but the high lasts less than two hours.
Unfortunately, because these mixtures tend to be so impure, the skin around the injection site often begins to turn greenish-gray and scaly, which some say is where the name “Krokodil” originates. Yet other says that the name comes from the fact that it tends to cut off the blood supply to the area, causing its victims to develop gangrene and lose the limb, much like if it was bitten off by a crocodile.
It has been said that those who use the drug become consumed by the process. They must cook the drug – which takes about 30 minutes – inject it, then about 30 minutes to an hour and a half later they must begin the process all over again. And, getting off the never-ending treadmill of drug use is nearly impossible, they say, despite its devastating effect of rotting off flesh, even down to the bone sometimes. Krokodil is even more addictive than heroin.
Once a person becomes addicted to the drug, experts say, they go downhill quickly, with the average user not lasting longer than two to four years.
In 2011, it was estimated that as many as 2 million Russians were addicted to this drug. At that time, Krokodil use had also begun to spread to other parts of Europe as well, with Germany, France, Belgium, Sweden, Norway, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine also being affected.
And, the first cases of its use are now starting to appear in the United States.
According to Dr. Frank LoVecchio, co-medical director at Banner Good Samaritan Poison and Drug Information Center located in Arizona, two cases of Krokodil use have appeared in his state. However, he refused to comment on how those people were doing.
To the best of his knowledge, these are the first cases that have occurred within the United States.
However, some, like Dr. Lewis Nelson, a medical toxicologist at Bellevue Hospital Center in New York, had previously expressed doubts about whether Krokodil use would reach to the United States. Its biggest draw in countries like Russia has been the fact that it was so cheap compared to similar drugs like heroin. In the U.S. there are other inexpensive and equally powerful drugs, such as black tar heroin and Oxycontin, which are readily available.
Now that it has reached the U.S., many are hoping that the pictures of flesh rotting off the bone like the following will be enough to discourage any potential Krokodil users from ever trying this devastating drug.
Written by: Nancy Schimelpfening
12 thoughts on “Krokodil: Devastating Drug Rots Flesh Off the Bone [Graphic Images]”
This makes clearer points than the usual…
I need to read more about this from you! And I’ll share this |blog immediately. Thanks!
I think I know what you mean with this, but even so I have a question. Do you mind chatting?
u r a gay fag kid
I first saw the effects of this horror while I was in detox, I couldn’t believe my eyes. I thought that it was being used a s a tool to scare me away. I can now see that this is real, and has made me aware of the greed,the total disregard for life. When these producers are busted they need to be forced to become addicted, and given a fix of their own product repeatedly.
KILL THEM ALL
Club 40 is a moron. Addiction is a brain disease it has been proven. It has nothing to do with willpower after you try a drug once like heroin. And just so you know club 40… people you are friends with are addicts… people in your family are addicts as well as people who live on your street. The thing these people need is rehabilitation…will power has nothing to do with it. As a drug addiction counselor I will say that addicts are good people who have made the wrong decisions and get hooked on a drug. Yes alcohol is a drug. I treat cops, lawyer and doctors with addiction problems as well as too many young people. None of these people asked to become physically addicted to to a drug. Some of them had surgery or chronic pain and become addicted to the meds their doctor gives them.
omg!!!!
Andddddd were supposed to have sympathy or any care in the world for people who do drugs and alcohol? Humans ARE WEAK. It’s really as simple as this just DON’T TOUCH DRUGS- DON’T TOUCH ALCOHOL!!. Some people are just so brain dead that they have to have it. They won’t go to a library, they won’t have a walk in the park, they won’t see a therapist to help their problems OH -NO instead they grab drinks and create DRUGS ALL F-ING DAY. Maybe all these druggies and alcoholics should spent their entire education learning to cut their fingers off one by one. That would have kept you away. It’s always the same thing on this planet weak people getting attached because their born mentally ill, depressed or whatever. To bad it’s you and you have to live with it. HUMAN FLAWS LIVE ON.
Do you really think this is any different than sores all over peoples faces and a lot of missing of missing teeth and a skeletal figure, when people are this far gone they’re not thinking of what they look like they’re thinking of where their next high is coming from, there’s darkness in everyone but not everyone deals with their issues as well as others just be grateful its not you, because that could be anyone at the flip of a coin
Yes this is in a entire other realm of different. Teeth can be replaced with dentures, sores can be surgically repaired and furthermore weight can be gained. A human being is incapable of regrowing a limb. I would like to also like to add that it could not be anyone at the flip of a coin, its called willpower and having a strong reserve of what you want in life. Sometimes people give up and resort to alternative stimulation to remove their selves from the reality around them that is a choice. I cant stress that point enough it is all by choice, all it takes is the same dedication to stop as it does for the ones that do not even start, also called inner strength, “self pride and preservation”. Apparently not all individuals possess this quality that is when drugs such as this find victim after victim. Thank you for asking my personal opinion on this matter.
I am SO mortified, and horrified at these pictures. these need to be on the news for the next several months every day to get the message out on how dangerous this really is. Run them at the end of the newsreel…..something! Pictures speak a thousand words and would go a lot further than some girl in a pretty dress yapping away about it for a second or two!!
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