It truly bothers me how much fentynal has been the culprit for spiritually murdering/actually murdering too many addicts to count anymore.
Fentanyl is an inanimate powder
incapable of killing anyone on its own as it is not sentient.
Let's please not anthropomorphize any chemicals.
If anyone has blood on their hands it's the
Big Pharma doctors and salesmen who gratuitously pushed unneeded opiate scripts on U.S. patients. Por ejemplo, all the Purdue Pharmaceutical sales reps claiming they didn't know OxyContin was addictive… I all bullshit. Any educated adult—especially one working in the medical field—should already know opioids are all derivatives of morphine, and as such they carry a notable risk of tolerance, dependency, and compulsive behavior pattern disorder. Everyone is on their own individual case-by-case basis and often it's virtually impossible to predict with accuracy which patients will develop this specific drug problem (I detest the term “addicted”, which etymologically means “spoken for”, hence why “diction” is in its word root; it's an unhelpful and confusing label).
In other words, the problem isn't the drug;
the problem is the U.S. population's desire/demand for the product, coupled with a lack of oversight and quality control, plus adjacent proximity to a supplier country adept and experienced at smuggling drugs (and people) into the U.S. for the blackmarket. What does the demand mean and where did it come from? These are the questions that need answers. And meanwhile, it's worth considering that regulating recreational use sales of all the currently illicit drugs would effectively cut-off the financial supply to the violent and dangerous transnational criminal organizations (TCOs and other organized crime syndicates in the drug trade). The people should demand this until it happens as they should equally demand an end to the so-called Drug War
at once.
What civilized government wages war against its own people? The U.S. incarcerates both the largest number of people of any country (2.2 million) and also the largest number of people
per capita. Number 2 is India at 1.9 million inmates, but guess what? India has a total of ~1.35 billion people while the U.S. comparatively has 330 million. India has over one billion more citizens than the United States, yet it manages to incarcerate 300,000 fewer of them.
I think another big reason behind
the mass proliferation of fentanyl is its super efficient and
low production cost compared to diacetylmorphine (Heroin) and most other opioids, Carfentanil notwithstanding. And with a super high potency, it's functionally similar to LSD in that
the profit margins on the drug are ridiculously high.
I mean, one kilogram of fentanyl produces 25 million single doses @ 40µg each. Now consider if each dose is sold for $5, each… this is just for the producers, we'll say, because each dose will wind up costing some end-user ~$20, but at $5/each that's $125 million dollars. Hell at $3/each that's $75 million, and it's ultimate street value should be somewhere in the neighborhood of a
half billion dollars. It should be obvious why these profits are so attractive to the TCOs and organized crime capable of reagent procurement and drug synthesis.
I've never met an addict that said, "golly jee willickers fent makes the heroin so euphoric and energizing!"
I've never met
anyone who actually says, “golly jee willickers” like we're in some nightmarish rerun of
Leave It To Beaver…
Also
no one should expect to be energized by painkillers. That would not be wise considering how it's classified as a central nervous system depressant. Not saying it doesn't happen; just don't
expect it. This will backfire, trust me. If you want Uptown, you take a stimulant. And not everyone associates having energy with feeling euphoric. I know people who forego Heroin altogether and they have a whole method down for volumetric dosing darknet fentanyl they get for bargain prices. At the same time, I just lost a good friend in April to his third and final heroin/fentanyl overdose. Trying to console his surviving mom and older sister, a couple of women I've known for decades now, was
brutality. So believe me, I'm not trying to downplay the severity of this problem. I miss my friend very much. It fucking
hurts knowing I'll never be able to speak with him again, and my heart is heavy from this tragic loss. And so it goes.
Fent seems to make almost everyone nod out hardcore,
That's kind of the point usually for most experienced opioid enthusiasts. If you've never experienced these highs, one insight I gained from my own experiments with them is that when I would
nod off I would be away
in the most remarkably vivid and wonderful dreams. It's really pure escapism with a high dose of euphoria. For people with heavy emotional pain in their lives, it's pretty clear to me why opioids' effects are so desirable – the anxiolysis, the euphoria, the slowed down thoughts and disinclination to dwell on the past or to think about bad memories, etc… Hell, almost any one of us humans on this planet suffers through some real pain sooner or later, some shit that traumatizes, ya know? And so, like so many other things, it's a coping mechanism.
and induces sloppy behavior that makes one unproductive
Well yeah it's kinda the opposite of productivity, but I'd also like to point out that productivity in and of itself shouldn't be considered some instant merit. Society places too much emphasis on maximizing productivity out of people. After all, perhaps Socrates put it best when he said, “
The unexamined life is not worth living.”
It's funny: people will condemn meth use while they gobble up Adderalls throughout the day, oblivious to the hypocrisy.
(unlike the olden US heroin that makes addicts motivated and less likely to overdose from chasing the nod).
What? No. First off, opioids, including diacetylmorphine (“Heroin” was a brand name, btw) comes mainly from the poppy fields of Afghanistan, so I'm not sure what you mean by “US heroin”. Secondly, Heroin has killed approximately 187,000 metric fucktons of people worldwide since its invention. Both drugs rank pretty high in lethality. And while it's true: there are high-functioning, opiate users out there who know how to manage dependency properly, it boils down to the habits and techniques of the user in question and is not some inseparable component to the drug, as if its use required dependency. Sound like something some old-school heroin user with a real dedication to their medication might say…
It is heartbreaking. I'm so sorry to anyone who had a friend or loved one overdose from fentynal related tragedies.
It is really heartbreaking. My friend was such a talented artist, too; it's such a shame. Since then I bought a bunch of
fentanyl test strips and have been giving them to people for testing their drugs, especially considering how it's popping up in bootleg Xanax bars and even cocaine purportedly. And I've been making it a point to visit old friends and check in on them more often.