Fentanyl respiratory depression

[salieriDK]

A good friend of mine got his hands on fentanyl (hcl). I've read all about it and all i know now is that it's really dangerous. nevertheless he'll continue probably with taking it. The question is: how long does it take for him to pass out/DIE. is there something you can do ? is naloxone the only thing that works when someone stops breathing ?

He's really stupid and he probably will try to hide him using it. do i need to watch him constantly ? is 10 min enough for him to OD and nothing to be done by it ?

 

[CaptainAmerica]

You should really read-up on the "stages" so to speak of overdose if you are concerned. First off, when he stops responding to your voice and/or external physical stimuli (pinch him, slap in the face etc.) then there is a very good chance he is headed to overdose and possibly even death if nothing is done.

Ideally, he shouldn't be fucking around with powder fentanyl. The best and only way to use it IMO is to carefully dose it out into a nasal spray so that each spray (or each 0.1ml) is 25-100µg etc. I've personally known people who have died by "eyeballing" the powder whether they are snorting, smoking, or shooting it. In fact, of the people I've known who have done that, 2 have died, 3 overdosed and had to be hospitalized, and 1 got very close to overdosing when we found him after the fact.

If you have naloxone on hand then more power to you, it is the only thing that's going to save someone from an overdose (except naltrexone but no point in getting into that really as naloxone is better for preventing OD).

Hopefully someone else can chime in on the earliest signs of OD...