Bad batch of heroin in NSW

[the_ketaman]

I hope someone can edit this but I just got confirmation of a bad batch of heroin going around NSW. Apparently 13 people have overdosed. I'm on a broken phone but my mother just called me to let me know as she heard it on the radio. I really felt the need to get it out as a lot of people have been affected. I am an addict but I'm on suboxone and am having a break from using. I've overdosed 5 times myself(and I'm a nurse too! I should know better!) and even though mixing h+benzodiazepines was the culprit, I still think this is really important to get out to people.

My sincere apologies for not providing more info but I don't know enough. I'll do my best to elaborate asap
Stay safe BL'ers

 

[poledriver]

State Coroner issues warning about deadly batch of heroin circulating in Sydney

A deadly batch of heroin is circulating Sydney, killing drug users just seconds after they inject the substance.
A string of 13 deaths in one month has prompted State Coroner Michael Barnes to issue an urgent warning.
The deaths occurred across Sydney between May 2 and June 3.

In every case, the person was found slumped on the floor with a syringe in their hands or needles and drug paraphernalia strewn next to their body indicating a death shortly after the drug was injected, Mr Barnes said.

"A spike in heroin overdoses over a short period suggests an unusually strong or corrupted supply being sold in Sydney," he said.
"As State Coroner, I deal with hundreds of deaths each year and it is part of my role to make recommendations that can save lives.

"In this instance, there is an urgency to bring this spate of drug-related deaths to the attention of the public prior to any inquest being held."
Two off the 13 deaths are female. Most of the victims were older, middle-aged men and they came from suburbs across Sydney including Potts Point, Willoughby, St Peters, Lane Cove North, Dee Why, Whalan and Liverpool.
About half of the deaths were in the city, inner west and eastern suburbs.

Frontline workers have told Fairfax Media a spate as deadly as this is incredibly unusual and concerning.
The Uniting Medically Supervised Injecting Centre in Kings Cross said they hadn't seen an increase in overdoses, which may indicate the batch is circulating in another part of Sydney.
The Centre supervises injections and minimises the harm associated by offering immediate medical assistance if it is ever required.
"We express our deepest sympathy to the family and friends who have lost their loved ones," a spokeswoman for the centre said.

A similar overdose epidemic hit Canada recently, blamed on a batch of pink-coloured heroin tainted with fentanyl, the drug that killed singer Prince.
Vancouver saw 16 overdoses in one day, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported
Heroin use has been declining across in Australia in recent years following the peak of the heroin epidemic in late 1990s.
However, heroin-related deaths have been increasing, the National Drug and Alcohol Research Council reported in 2013.

In 2009, 645 people died from accidental opioid overdose in Australia; about one-third from NSW. Deaths among older users have reached levels higher than the 2001 peak.
Heroin is also still the primary drug of choice among injecting users, according to NDARC's Illicit Drug Reporting System report for 2015.
Frequency of heroin use among injecting users increased significantly between 2014 and 2015 and users have reported that the price has remained relatively stable and the drug is quite easy to obtain.
The impurity of heroin is rarely the cause of fatal overdoses.

Rather, heroin deaths are usually due to polydrug use, such as the use of heroin with other depressants like alcohol or benzodiazepines, researchers say.
Mr Barnes said street-level heroin is rarely pure and can sometimes be cut with drugs or compounds that can kill a person in one dose.
"The message is clear - if you're thinking of experimenting with illicit drugs just don't do it. Heroin has always been dangerous and these recent deaths highlight it's a gamble not worth taking."

Deaths -

02.05.16
Age 41Gender: MaleDeath occurred: Willoughby
06.05.16
Age 51Gender: MaleDeath occurred: Liverpool
16.05.16
Age 28Gender: Male Death occurred: St eter!
18.05.16
Age 44Gender: "e#ale Death occurred: Lane $ove %orth
19.05.16
Age 52Gender: Male

Death occurred: Silverdale
20.05.16
Age &'Gender: MaleDeath occurred: Maroubra
25.05.16
Age 22Gender: Male Death occurred: Waterloo
25.05.16
Age 48Gender: MaleDeath occurred: Waterloo
26.05.16
Age ()* Gender: MaleDeath occurred: Werrington
30.05.16

Age 41Gender: MaleDeath occurred: ott! oint
01.06.16
Age 48Gender: Male Death occurred: Wolloo#ooloo
02.06.16
Age 5&Gender: "e#ale Death occurred: Dee Why
03.06.16
Age &+Gender: MaleDeath occurred: Whalan

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/state-cor...in-circulating-in-sydney-20160607-gpd8de.html

 

[JessFR]

Thanks for the heads up (I live in western Sydney) did some googling myself but unfortunately yet not surprisingly most of the available information is completely useless beyond the warning itself.

http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2016-...ompts-coroner-to-issue-heroin-warning/7485050

"As state coroner, I deal with hundreds of deaths each year and it is part of my role to make recommendations that can save lives."

...

"The message is clear: if you're thinking of experimenting with illicit drugs — just don't do it," he said.
"Heroin has always been dangerous and these recent deaths highlight it's a gamble not worth taking"

Fucking useless moron. Yes that'll save lives. Just don't do it it's dangerous. Good thing we have educated professionals like him to tell us. I doubt many have ever heard that using heroin can be dangerous. But now that we know I have no doubt people will make sure never to try heroin. And those of us already on it. Well now that an upstanding public servant like him has informed us of the danger im sure we'll all stop now. It's not like that's anything anyone might find difficult or painful.

I mean I suppose it might also have been of potentially marginal benefit to include such information like iunno, maybe the appearance of the heroin involved in those deaths, or perhaps precautions people can take just in case a small few weak willed and foolish individuals dont simply quit. But fortunately I'm sure most won't need anything like that now that they just know to stop.

In all seriousness though, I hate that people like him are being paid by our tax dollars. Either say something useful or just keep it to the basic facts and then shut it. The thing I hate most about people like him is that they're either incompetent or they're spineless traitors to their medical oath. Either being too incompetent to make good recommendations, or too corrupted too give recommendations that might actually save lives and make the world better. Recommendations they know their superiors don't want to hear and might put their paycheck at risk.

 

[poledriver]

some people have a very weird view on things -

 

[Tronica]

Shit. I wonder if it is fentanyl or such derivatives? I make this comment because I was discussing the problems New York City is having with heroin overdoses, and they have evidence the heroin overdoses were actually from fentanyl.

 

[SixBuckets]

This article says it's fentanyl: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-06-07/coroner-warns-of-deadly-batch-of-heroin/7488164

Stay safe, peeps. Remember that naloxone is available over the counter in some pharmacies now - good advice to get some if you're injecting opiates and to make sure the people you use with know how to administer it.

 

[Tronica]

Hm. The article says it 'could be' fentanyl. Alex Wodak is thinking what I'm thinking, but neither of us has hard evidence. Perhaps a coroner will examine one of these unfortunate deaths and confirm it.

 

[Crankinit]

Don't want to jump the gun entirely but I'd be pretty surprised if it wasn't fentanyl, given it's ready availability on the deep web and how easy it would be to make a fatal batch by messing up the cutting process. I'm only surprised this didn't happen a few years ago.

 

[the_ketaman]

Thank you so much Poledriver for fixing this.

I'm so glad we've got this out on BL as I think it is a great platform to spread awareness.

Stay safe guys, and yes my bet is fentanyl too. Until a week or so ago the normally potent heroin i get has been weak af! If you used bigger amounts of that stuff then got one of these batches, it won't end well! :-/

 

[FlittyKitty]

Why would you even want to do Heroin......

 

[chugs]

Why would you even want to do Heroin......

short answer: it feels great, its very non-toxic and outside of a few issues that can be managed its one of the safest drugs out there.

long answer. It's one of the least toxic substances known to man. That 90% of all of the problems associated with heroin are utterly due to its illegal status. If it was legal and pharmaceutical grade, selling for approx the same price a gram of codeine sells at a chemist (think how much a box 20 tablets cost) then the vast majority of issues surrounding the financial problems would be resolved.

No one would need to steal. There would be no gangs selling heroin. At least $20 billion year from bloated law enforcement budgets could be spent on clinics, rehabs and early intervention programs to target vulnerable and the dysfunctional. Pure medical grade heroin is far harder to overdose on when you know exactly your getting in terms of dose. Coupled with clinics for dysfunctional who would be given a raft of medical and social services overall overdoses would fall massively. Especially if users were shown how to safely use. The number one reason for opiate overdose has very little to do with the opiate but rather the other drugs the user has invariably taken i.e. alcohol, benzo's etc.

Regarding opiate withdrawals or what can be called dope induced sickness. Research has shown this has very little to do with withdrawing. There are now several drugs that reduce / stop the symptoms you feel after the last dose of heroin. Imagine instead of becoming violently ill as what happens that you'd essentially be able to stop using heroin with no ill effect.

Again this nullifies what is probably the biggest problem with regular opiate us.

 

[JessFR]

Why would you even want to do Heroin......

I'm sorry but what kinda question is that? Why does anyone want to do any drug? To get high, because it's pleasurable, to cope with lifes suckyness and because for a lot of possible reasons you decide the risks aren't enough to dissuade you.

And that's not even counting all the people who are addicted to it which is far more complicated than what you want.

 

[spacejunk]

Fent analogue, would be my guess.
This is bad, bad, bad. Its killed so many people in north america, i was hoping the practice of cutting smack with fent or its analogues wouldnt catch on here.

Why greedy dealers are happy to (potentially) kill their customers is beyond me

BTW thanks for posting this.

 

[SixBuckets]

Why would you even want to do Heroin......

FlittyKitty, you've posted on a number of threads talking about how bad and evil some drugs are. You're new, so you may not be aware that this is against the guidelines for most of our forums. It's completely fine to have your own preferences and feelings about particular substances, but we're a harm reduction community and part of that is not passing judgement on other people's substances of choice. People don't make good decisions about their health and safety when they're being shamed and stigmatised for what they put in their bodies.

Please take this as a polite request to reframe these comments to be about your personal preferences in future.

 

[the_ketaman]

The number one reason for opiate overdose has very little to do with the opiate but rather the other drugs the user has invariably taken i.e. alcohol, benzo's etc.

This pretty much goes for most drugs except some RC's and Fentanyl.

The problem with GHB is people drinking alcohol with it, often MDMA dehydration is Alcohol induced. Your unlikely to OD on Benzos without another depressant in your system. most drugs are pretty safe on their own in reasonable doses.

Obviously not all cases involve poly-substance use. I said a mistruth in my original post. I've OD'd once on just heroin and I think it may have been the worst time. I had 2 points(w/ a habit) but the night before I'd been on meth which severely messes up the oxygen levels/circulation in my blood and I think that's what caused me to drop. I woke up being given CPR. I nearly had that shot on the way home too in which case I'd be dead. All the other times were false confidence/ignorance/plain old stupidity due to Benzos+Heroin and the choices I made(Can never forget the invaluable yet often forgotten old saying "Take responsibility for your actions") having a stupid huge shot and subjecting some poor passer by to find me, I'd wake up in an ambulance..... Damn got a little sidetracked there! Can you tell I'm depressed?

What I began to say there is that poly-drug use is usually the culprit, but with this Fentanyl crap it's a whole other ballgame. I've IV'd Fent patches(silly I know. Do as I say, not as I do!) and they aren't even good and feel pretty different from H. Very little euphoria. The people doing this are scum!

 

[slow&sideways]

How common do people reckon this is in Australia? I.E dope cut with fent or fent analogues? Been researching a wee bit and a couple of folks are claiming that most DNM vendors' "pure" is cut with fent/a fent analogue but I dunno...I've never knowingly used fentanyl, but it seems there's enough of a qualitative difference from a heroin high that you'd be able to tell? But then perhaps not if it was a well-mixed blend? Appreciate any responses.

 

[astroboy007]

Wow this just blew me away. Ive not been on here for some time. I use gear live in Sydney and this is the ive heard of this!

 

[JessFR]

How common do people reckon this is in Australia? I.E dope cut with fent or fent analogues? Been researching a wee bit and a couple of folks are claiming that most DNM vendors' "pure" is cut with fent/a fent analogue but I dunno...I've never knowingly used fentanyl, but it seems there's enough of a qualitative difference from a heroin high that you'd be able to tell? But then perhaps not if it was a well-mixed blend? Appreciate any responses.

I'm a sydney based heroin addict. I get regular and detailed drug tests as part of being on methadone and ive never come back positive for fentanyl and have never to my knowledge encountered fentanyl adulterated heroin. So around here at least id say it's currently uncommon thankfully.

 

[spacejunk]

It seems uncommon for the time being, but a lot of people "in the know" are deeply concerned that a similar outbreak of fent analogues hitting the market, sold as smack, could happen here.
The fent analogues are frighteningly easy to procure (i'm far from well connected or informed about these things, but even i know some clearnet sources for these things. The profit margin would be stupid - but so is the risk to consumers.
This is a really scary trend, and i just hope the traditional heroin market in Australia is able to withstand the temptation to go down this path.
Unlike the US, or even somewhere like the UK, i find the heroin-using community to be quite tight-knit and insular over here.
It's not like a lot of other drugs, which can be bought from friends-of-friends on a casual sort of basis - IME you kinda need to know the right people, and i really hope this acts as a deterent to prevent people from selling drugs that have such potential to kill.

It makes no sense to sell drugs that kill your customers - but it seems that in North America, the market is so large, and the people behind the distribution so removed from the users who rely on their product, that peddling deadly stuff for a higher profit has fewer consequences for a the people involved in making it.

It's worth noting, also, that the terrible amount of deaths in the united states has a direct link to the huge amounts of people that were introduced to opioids through the massive popularity of oxycodone a decade or so ago.
Many of these people, when tight restrictions were placed upon prescription opioids (and many of the more popular pills such as OC80s were made with an "abuse proof" extended-release polymer matrix) a lot of people turned to heroin, which is much cheaper in the US than Australia.
The problem has been compounded in the US by elaborately pressed pills that look - and are packaged - exactly like the highly sought-after prescription painkillers that a lot of people trust over black market heroin (given that legit pain pills have high standards of quality control, uniform purity, and contain exactly what it says on the packet.
One only needs to look at the tragic death of Prince to get some insight into how insidious the marketing of fake pills has become. By all reports, his pills looked exactly like the real thing, but sadly were deadly fakes.

In the US and Canada, even (fake) benzo pills like Xanax have been found to contain fent/fent analogues.
I believe there have even been instances of fent turning up in "molly"/mdma. Things really have been getting that dire.
The whole situation is very different in the states - heroin use is not as common in Australia, and i really hope that a similar situation does not arise here.
What makes the whole situation worse is that there are no easy ways to test for the presence of fent or its analogues.
The best advice seems to be to take an "allergy test" each time you score - in other words, take a tiny dose before having a shot, a line or whatever your preferred ROA is.
Unfortunately, given the nature of heroin addiction, this piece of HR advice is probably not going to gain a lot of traction - but i urge anyone using heroin to sample a tiny speck - a milligram or two, way under the active dose - and see if it has any effects.
If a tiny dose like this has a noticeable effect, it needs to be treated with extreme caution - or, preferably - disposed of.

There is no way to use street fentanyl "recreationally" in a safe manner; it is not uniformly mixed with the intert cuts, and is so incredibly potent that even experienced users who know they are taking fentanyl (or one of its analogues) are known to overdose quite frequently. It's a very dangerous family of compounds, and i've known plenty of people that have run to run into trouble using pharmaceutical grade fent (from transdermal patches).

As much as i hope this horrifying trend does not become commonplace in australia, i can't say i feel optimistic about it; the drug market is very lucrative here, and sadly greedy, unethical people are not geographically isolated to any market.
The dark net markets are not immune to fent adulteration, and neither are domestic, local, traditional markets.

I hope the social climate here has some way of minimising the infiltration of fent misrepresented as other drugs - but i'm not particularly confident that it will somehow bypass the Australian market.
Users really need to be made aware of the risks here so as to mitigate them in any way possible. We really need to step up efforts to educate people, and also to prevent - as best we can complacency on the part of users.

Law reform is probably the best way of protecting the Australian public from this phenomenon, but sadly our state and federal governments have shown little to no regard for the health, safety or survival of drugs users, which is nothing new - but deeply depressing all the same.
Which leaves this in the hands of the community - drug users, people involved in harm reduction efforts - anyone that is reading this.
We need to look out for each other, and share as much information with one another as we can to help save lives.

Stay safe folks, and look after your friends and try to follow all the important steps to stay safe - try not to use alone, always have some naloxone on hand (and plenty of it, if possible - fentanyl is notorious for requiring more than one dose to bring people around, as i believe it has a pretty high binding affinity - and finally, if something doesn't seem right about your gear, tread very, very carefully.
These are scary times, and your life is not something to be complacent about.

 

[slow&sideways]

^fanastic post spacejunk. Yeah it does seem - sadly and frighteningly enough - that it's only a matter of time before this becomes more widespread here. I've never known of it where I am (Melbourne) but it only takes one ruthless person really, as the example from Sydney originally posted shows. As above, users need to take every step possible to alert each other if fent adulteration is a possibility - no one is gonna look after us but us. If you have a regular source please talk to them about this - if awareness of the dangers spreads both up and down the supply chain then just maybe we can avoid people dying needlessly.