Advice wanted after friend dies taking methadone.

[pinkmoon]

My good friend who I loved very much died last weekend from a mix of Methadone and Xanax, after a long coke binging session. I am pretty sure he had not done Methadone before either. He was found dead in his bed on sunday night. He emailed me (strangely telling me what he had exactly taken, which was unusual) and rang me just before he went off to lay down.. that was the last I ever heard his voice, after that he was dead.

He emailed me the amounts of pills he had taken, this is what he took:

30mg of methadone, and 8 - 10 xanax (he said the 'strong' ones)

I'd be interested to know anyones views on the amount he took and the inbuilt risks that went along with this. I feel he wasn't really aware of how dangerous this mix was. Did he have much chance of coming round at all from this??... I know he was NOT a regular methadone user (like I say I suspect he had not taken it before in fact) but he was a regular user of pain killers on a daily basis.. which he had an addiction to but was trying to sort out.


this was his last email to me before he died:

"but instead of feeling the horrid withdrawls associated with any coke endeavor I feel ok. I took around 8- 10 xanax number ones, the strong one and 3 methadone 10mg , again the strongest ones. So I feel no withdrawl symptoms. In fact the methadone is the strongest thing I feel right, it's a bit overwhelmign which is good. I feel too tired to do anytihng right now in fact I'm npding out. However I have no cocaine wtihdrawls! Wi--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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-----------------------------------------------------------------ok I can't see straight I'im giong to oie dwon. "

He rang me straight after he sent me this email... to speak to me, he sounded really high and falling into sleep. I found out he had died about 12 hours later.
I did not know that methadone was so dangerous... only after his death have I looked into it and realised. If I'd known before I would have made a phone call and had someone check on him as soon as I'd seen his email. That is the beauty of hindsight though.

peace
Pink



​

 

[InHerOwnWrite]

I'm very sorry this happened to your friend. A friend of mine also OD'd from a combination of cocaine, xanax, and- not methadone, but- oxycontin. It's kind of an incomprehensible thing to deal with, it just doesn't seem real.
I wish you the best in getting through this. Maybe you should post in the Dark Side forum here on Bluelight?
P.S. I like your user name, always glad to see a Nick Drake fan

 

[PIC]

That combination, especially with those amounts is a definate death if one doesn't have a tolerance for the Benzodiazepines & Methadone. I'm very sorry for your loss. I wish that people could know what kind of situation they are putting theselves into by taking a coctail of such high doses of depressants without a reasonable tolerance. It's a shame.

 

[pinkmoon]

Thankyou for your kind words... I'm still not able to accept he's gone.. we were so close.

He was familiar with xanax, he had used it alot before (prob on it's own tho) ... but I have no idea why he would want to take all that as well as the methadone, seems incredible.. maybe he just wasn't thinking. He was intelligent and I am surprised he took this risk, he acted as if he had no clue how potentially life threatening the amounts were and I know for a fact he was not a regular methadone user. I think the friend that was with him must have supplied the methadone and was more tolerant too... amd knew what he was dealing with. I'm just amazed that he didn't take more care of my friend and advise him.

I was wondering whether it was perhaps suicide.. but his email doesn't read like that.. I think he just made a bad mistake and thought he'd be fine.

 

[robatussin]

to me, the amount of xanax he did sound far more concerning than the methadone. 30 mg is not a very strong dose, although if he never dabbled in opiates before i guess he would be nodding off. 8-10 xanax can be as much as 20 mg alprazolam (you didnt specify the dose and i suppose he didnt either). It is hard to say exactly how this kid died untill the autopsy or whatever, but I think the xanax dose is of more concern. I am sorry for your loss.

 

[SteeleyJ]

^^ xanax on it's own is very hard to accually overdose on, you might sleep for a few days but an accual death from xanax alone is rare. But that much xanax ( especially if it was 2mg pills ) combined with methadone with no tolerance to opioids is a pretty good recipe for disaster.

Sorry to hear about your loss. Hope you're holding up okay.
R.I.P



Edit : If you need anyone to talk to i'll shoot you a pm with my S/N

 

[pinkmoon]

thankyou all for your condolences....
I keep thinking about it being a possible intentional suicide.... but the email doesn't have that feel to it... what does anyone else think?

just wondered...

 

[byrd]

from the email I understand it to be 10mg of xanax.
I don't feel it was intentional from the wording.
Just this case was 1+1=3 and no one was around to see it to save him/her

 

[pinkmoon]

from the email I understand it to be 10mg of xanax.
I don't feel it was intentional from the wording.
Just this case was 1+1=3 and no one was around to see it to save him/her

Well he had a good friend with him who stayed with him all weekend and they were doing drugs together. He was the person who found him dead in the evening on sunday. This friend said that he didn't do methadone himself and went onto bed... and he is not aware of the drugs the guy that died took... he claims he warned him 'not to mix' though as he was going to crash out. He said after that he slept for about 12 hours and then checked on his friend who looked to be sleeping in bed and discovered him dead. Seems he wasn't really watching my mate very well at all. He claims he didn't see what drugs my friend took and didn't take any come down drugs himself. He said he didn't do the methadone either himself, just the coke which they took together over the weekend, and that's what he told the police. He wasn't blood tested by the police.

Yes the wording sounds casual and not like a 'final' email..

 

[pinkmoon]

to me, the amount of xanax he did sound far more concerning than the methadone. 30 mg is not a very strong dose, although if he never dabbled in opiates before i guess he would be nodding off. 8-10 xanax can be as much as 20 mg alprazolam (you didnt specify the dose and i suppose he didnt either). It is hard to say exactly how this kid died untill the autopsy or whatever, but I think the xanax dose is of more concern. I am sorry for your loss.

I've yet to hear the autopsy results as his mother is in so much pain she isn't able to talk about it yet. I have no other way of finding out either. I don't know what size xanax pills... for sure... and he certainly wouldn't of been methadone tolerant. Yeah maybe he might of been okay with just the methadone.. but I have read on these boards about people falling unconscious who aren't tolerant on just 20mg with no mixing and others getting totally off their heads on 10mg. So I think it depends, but tolerance seems key here and also mixing I am learning is often potentially fatal if you don't know exactly what you are doing. He appears to be maxing it all the way.. just too much...

 

[Psilo707]

Really sorry for your loss.. I hope his family and friends can get through this as best as possible.


As for reason of death, it wasn't the xanax, even at that high of a dose. The biggest xanax are the 2 mg bars, and I'm willing to bet thats what he had. But even at 16-20 mg, that substance wouldn't be the reason for someone to die. Benzo's in general can't kill someone unless they are taken in extreme amounts (we're talking dozens, or even hundreds).

It was most likely the combination of cocaine and methadone. Even though that's not a very high methadone dose, when combining that 'with' a recently finished cocaine binge, it's wouldn't be hard for the body to become overwhelmed and shut down.

 

[white_russia12]

I understand what your going through..i had a Family member who OD'd on just methadone..very hard to accecept even more so in your case thought im terribly sorry.


Best of luck in your healing

 

[johanneschimpo]

"I took around 8- 10 xanax number ones"

It seems like he is referring to 1mg xanax, ie "number ones"
Then again, it doesn't seem to important which they were.

To pinkmoon and the deceased's family, I offer my condolences.

 

[servalis]

This is the worst part about drug forums, hearing about the deaths. I'm new here, but still I am saddened to hear of your loss. Condolences.

 

[pinkmoon]

Really sorry for your loss.. I hope his family and friends can get through this as best as possible.


As for reason of death, it wasn't the xanax, even at that high of a dose. The biggest xanax are the 2 mg bars, and I'm willing to bet thats what he had. But even at 16-20 mg, that substance wouldn't be the reason for someone to die. Benzo's in general can't kill someone unless they are taken in extreme amounts (we're talking dozens, or even hundreds).

It was most likely the combination of cocaine and methadone. Even though that's not a very high methadone dose, when combining that 'with' a recently finished cocaine binge, it's wouldn't be hard for the body to become overwhelmed and shut down.

Hi, thanks for your input there Psilo. Well now thinking about it he does mention the xanax as 'number ones'.... but either way, the mixing isn't good with these two drugs.. much more chance of OD apparently, when you mix methadone with benzos.

But I think I agree with you with your comment about the overall strain on the body after a long coke session and then straight after administering yourself a drug that does the total opposite and is actually shutting down and relaxing everything... not good. I think the methadone was too high too... given that I'm pretty sure he was not tolerant to it.. I've read on here that people have been really messed up on 10-20mg if they are not used to using the drug.

 

[5-HT2]

I'm very sad for your loss, pinkmoon. If you need some more support, try this forum.

This is obviously a cautionary tale. People, please try to avoid mixing strong opiates and other CNS depressants, and if you do, be careful.

 

[Will01996]

Sorry to hear about your friend.

A pharmacist friend recently told me that Xanax is involved in a lot of drug overdoses.

I have taken Xanax regularly for over 10 years and the most I have ever taken in a day is 3 tablets of .5 mg (total 1.5 mg). If your friend took 8 mg. that is a huge dose.

My sister was involved with a hard party crowd for years and several of them died from 10 mg. of Methadone mixed with alcohol, xanax and other pills. In most cases it was the first time the person had taken Methadone, but had taken their "normal" dose of party drugs. Every horror story she told me included "xanax, alcohol and methadone".

 

[Chuff]

30 mils of methadone is a fairly safe dose on its own, though with no tolerance there is always a slight risk for a first time user.

combining depressants is always risky however never mix unless you are experienced and then with caution and supervision

 

[coulage v.2]

i had a kinda similar thing happen to a friends friend over christmas. the guy that died was an apparently cleaned up H junkie who had just discovered faith, and shit. so he'd probably been relatively clean for a while. he was all alone in the world bar a few friends.

well he had this other friend who had been prescribed morphine, for what im not sure. they had been hanging out with a bunch of ppl, but none of them were ever implicated in the event. anyway, i guess for old times sake they decided to iv some morphine. they other friend must have given the guy that died an equivalent dose to what he took himself. this other guy had a tollerance, but the now dead one obviously did not. im not sure on the events that actually occurred - no one is talking - but he was found stone cold dead. OD declared the cause of death. foul play? quite possible, but also quite possibly just very poor judgement, and poor education.

either way, guys dead, body claimed, case closed.

 

[notornotFMAN]

Don't take methadone.
H is better if you must.

Snorted heroin CAN be almost as good at shot her.
Harm Reduction.
B-yeesafe ist gut doodmon.