We need some sort of confirmation, before which Also it's premature to speculate about cause
I agree... from the way it looked in pictures and the circumstances surrounding it (that he described), I thought it was likely a genuine carry from the clinic, with just a character cut off on the label. His test run of it, describing 2+ hours to onset etc., also makes it seem like methadone and not fentanyl.
If you could still easily order fentalogues from China and just dump a pinch back in your empty carry with some juice, then it would be more plausible, but I can think of a few reasons why it might be an unlikely occurrence in general and in this specific case....
Compared with heroin or oxycodone pills, the market for diverted methadone is passionate but not that large (especially with Suboxone diverted widely); it involves many more hassles to prepare all the fake bottles with local clinic (and patient/doctor) names for every city printed on legit-looking labels, etc.; and finally, fake-methadone sellers would have to pay for the product, while their real-methadone competitors are selling something they got for free (most likely).
RIP in any event.
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@jhjhsdi
I'm very sorry to hear about the loss of your friend in that way. Reading the list of drugs, I noticed the gabapentin in that mix right away. Of course methadone is already pretty bad from an overdose perspective compared to other opiates to begin with (AFAIK), but I really get the impression that the OD risk of gabapentin/pregabalin/etc. is not very well appreciated by users.
They don't have the bad rep that benzos or alcohol do, but many people are mixing 2 or all 3 of those categories together, and it doubles down on their OD potential with opiates. Plus the long duration (especially of gabapentin) and the lingering CNS depression can sneak up on someone -- especially someone who took some for withdrawals earlier in the day and then managed to cop.
Even knowing the risks, it's something I had to learn through experience, luckily short of an OD, when I took 300mg pregabalin one morning and thought I'd wait until long after it had worn off before I did my evening shot. I'd waited at least 10 hours since taking the pregabalin to do a light-normal shot of heroin, but as soon as I pushed down the plunger, 5 minutes disappeared from the clock and I found myself struggling to get upright off the bathroom floor.