Opiates being non toxic questions

[justtakethat]

I know that morphine and codeine are non toxic and naturally occuring. But how do deaths occur then. It slows the breathing and you die from that, but it seems like the morphine is still the cause of death there. You dont die like you would from caffeine toxicity or coke toxicity, but how is it different to die from a form of toxicity than a non toxic drug.

Also i saw a thread about of u had a machine to breath for u if u could do unlimited heroin, would that be true? Lastly has anyone died from there heart stopping from opiates or is it always asphyxiation?

 

[DelRi0]

Hey OP, I can offer a little insight to your question as I used to be a paramedic and sadly have witnessed first hand exactly what happens with opioid overdose deaths. I guess the simple answer to your overall question is that your body basically shuts down and goes to sleep....forever. Specifically though, in a nutshell, your brain's communication pathways to your body is whats know as your Central Nervous System [CNS], drugs such as opiates and opioids work as CNS depressants on your body which basically means it suppresses most of the functions of one's CNS, the goal here being to decrease the ability of your CNS to signal to your brain that some part of your body is in pain, the downside however is that if its suppressed TOO much for TOO long basically your brain is sitting there saying "umm..ok body..wtf...I'm not getting any feedback, are you there? something wrong? ...oh shit something is wrong!" Sooo then your body starts its purging / saving itself functions such as reducing bloodflow to certain organs and somewhat shuts them down, thats one thing that starts the death process. Then usually what happens is your blood pressure bottoms out and your breathing slows way way down because of the brain trying to slow everything down while it tries to figure out whats going on, thats number two. Then basically your brain tells your body to purge itself which causes vomiting, and when you vomit when youre unconscious you aspirate on the vomit, meaning that it flows back down in to your lungs, literally "drowning" you, thats number three. Now when you combine all of those things, low pulse, slow breathing, vomit in lungs...you will eventually succumb to a mixture of all of those things if enough time elapses and no emergency antagonist like naloxone is administered in time...eventually your brain says "ok...Ive done all I know to do....I'm out..." .....Then you're dead. Sorry for the hyperbole but I tried explaining it in a not-so-scientific way for the sake of time. Hope that helped you question

 

[justtakethat]

I knew about the uncontrollable nod when ur doing too much and the risk of throwing up cuz opiates cause naseua when ur sleeping but i was wondering if you don't throw up sleeping do you always stop breathing before your heart stopping. Also i think ur theory on the cns depressant causing your pain to dull because im pretty sure other downers like barbituates dont help pain. And i remember seeing somethinf about it working with the pain receptors.

 

[DelRi0]

It's not my personal theory about CNS depressants, it's just a fact that the pharmacological action of any CNS depressants, be it benzos, barbs, alcohol, or opiates, dampens the body's responses to anything having to do with outside stimuli including cognitive functions, perception of reality/pain, emotions, etc. And to your question about the breathing and heart stopping, it's kind of a complex mix of a bunch of different things going on when a human is dying, it's actually a process. When your brain shuts down the first thing to stop is your breathing.. Then you go in to cardiac arrest from lack of oxygen... And eventually without resuscitation, you finally die.

 

[justtakethat]

That means barbituates and antihistamines should dull my pain then if that were completely true. They are both cns depressants, but i see what you are trying to say. Thats dumb how if u take way too much ,which is very hard to do if ur not injecting, (youd already be really sick and passing out uncontrollably) you die of lack of oxygen but when your a drinker you can die of liver failure and other shit that directly fucks your body up. But then people that drink alchohol will probably talk shit on someone who uses codeine or heroin

 

[DelRi0]

...But then people that drink alchohol will probably talk shit on someone who uses codeine or heroin

Yep. You're dead on there, it's the whole "Well what I do isn't as bad" mentality that often gets addicts worse off in the first place. I've personally been put down before by holier-than-thou alcoholics who think they're somehow better than someone who pops pills or smokes and shoots dope. Shits sad honestly. But that's the culture we live in...Alcohol kills WAY more people every day than most "illegal" drugs kill in an entire year. Ya know?