Canada - 100% of study participants using illicit opioids test positive for fentanyl

[S.J.B.]

UBC researchers find 100 percent of study participants using illicit opioids test positive for fentanyl
Travis Lupick
The Georgia Straight
February 2nd, 2018

A common joke told around the Downtown Eastside is that there is no heroin left in Vancouver, only fentanyl. Now a study out of UBC suggests that jest actually has some truth to it.

"The proportion of opioid users in the Downtown Eastside who tested positive for fentanyl jumped to 100 percent from 45 in just five months last year," reads a UBC media release.

Researchers led by Dr. William Honer, head of UBC's department of psychiatry, monitored 237 Downtown Eastside homeless people and residents living in the neighbourhood's shabby hotels. Participants attended monthly meetings from March 2017 to July 2017, answered questions about their drug use, and provided urine samples that were cross-referenced with their responses.

"Fentanyl-positive urine samples increased rapidly during a 5-month period while opiate-positive samples declined," reads a paper based on the study that was published in JAMA Psychiatry.

"By July 2017, all samples from participants reporting nonprescribed opioid use were fentanyl-positive."

Read the full story here.

 

[Pickledlemons]

Yup. My town is all fentanyl. Everybody knows it. If you tried to sell real heroin you would probably get laughed at. Its just not strong enough compared with the Carfent/W18 mixtures going around.

 

[The Network]

Yup. My town is all fentanyl. Everybody knows it. If you tried to sell real heroin you would probably get laughed at. Its just not strong enough compared with the Carfent/W18 mixtures going around.

I thought the high wasn't as fun, are people really that simple that they just go for whatever's most potent and don't actually care about the high itself?

 

[falsifiedhypothesi]

^ I think they go for what?s available and when you?ve been shooting fentanyl for 5 months heroin probably doesn?t cut it anymore.

 

[Escape Fantasy]

Some people on here like to get high on fentanyl itself.

Not that crazy to me.

 

[Pickledlemons]

^ I think they go for what?s available and when you?ve been shooting fentanyl for 5 months heroin probably doesn?t cut it anymore.

Yeah exactly. I much prefer fent over heroin, mostly for the rush. I used to smoke off tinfoil and I would literally have to smoke heroin nonstop for an hour to get high. Fent one or two hoots and I'm good. Heroin kept me well, thats about it. And its not like it was junk either, I bought online from reputable vendors.

 

[jbow]

That really sucks...

 

[sekio]

I think they go for what?s available and when you?ve been shooting fentanyl for 5 months heroin probably doesn?t cut it anymore

this is it.

Initially dealers would add fentanyl to heroin which produced "better"/"stronger" effects than "regular" heroin. It also produces stronger dependence, once you start using fentanyl via IV/smoking it is hard to get "high" by using opioids of lower potency and the withdrawal effects are much stronger.

Some dealers also found that higher percentage fentanyl mixtures produce more of a "crack-type addiction" due to its short half life (duration of effect of pure fentanyl is ~a few hours), if you are profit-focused then why wouldn't you want people buying 5-10 doses a day rather than 1 or 2?

 

[phenethylo J]

I predicted that shit like fent/ analogs and rc opioids would take over and replace heroin and be pushed in counterfeit pills like 10 years ago. Isn't W-18 not even an opioid at all.

 

[Captain.Heroin]

this is it.

Initially dealers would add fentanyl to heroin which produced "better"/"stronger" effects than "regular" heroin. It also produces stronger dependence, once you start using fentanyl via IV/smoking it is hard to get "high" by using opioids of lower potency and the withdrawal effects are much stronger.

Some dealers also found that higher percentage fentanyl mixtures produce more of a "crack-type addiction" due to its short half life (duration of effect of pure fentanyl is ~a few hours), if you are profit-focused then why wouldn't you want people buying 5-10 doses a day rather than 1 or 2?

Probably because the people will wake up in the middle of the night in withdrawal, too disabled to go out and cop so you'll end up with all your customers in the clinic/state-run health care facilities?

No?

I can't imagine I'd take that chance. If they were cutting it with some longer-lasting fentanyl analog, I could see it easier.

I'm pretty sure if heroin didn't have that beautifully long duration I'd have just quit a lot quicker. *shrugs*