Heroin shortage in UK is 'putting lives at risk'

I also would not go so far as to call morphine a 'safe' drug, it has accepted medical uses and offers a great deal of pain relief, but calling it 'safe' would be incorrect.
 
It's safe as long as you exercise the tiniest fraction of common sense. Morphine itself is fairly non-toxic, and since it's a pharmaceutical you can easily measure your dose accurately, there's really no excuse for ODing or causing yourself serious harm with it.
 
There's been cases of some cuts being semi-legal Barbiturate analogues, Phenazepam etc.
There's likely quite a few toxic ones also. Lots of pharmacologically inert bulks...
"Anyting n evryting" unscrupulous dealers can get their hands on really :/
 
paranoid android said:
Whats the shit cut with? Also why would anyone cut heroin with APAP as it does not actually look like heroin, is not very water soluble so it would be pretty useless for IV heroin addicts and it does not actually do anything? Whats up with the caffiene? Ive heard that it can make heroin more smokable so maybe thats why it's used as cut?
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People cut with retarded stuff sometimes, but I'm betting APAP is far less prevalent than the article implies..

evilthree said:
This makes me glad our heroin comes from South America
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If high quality/availability and low prices in our current system is the goal, then yeah.

SDforever420 said:
Its used as cut because its not H. Therefore...making the dealers more money. Most Dealers dont give a shit what they but there dope with as long as it sells. and it will.
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:|

seep said:
soviet fent analogues possibly
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Are the soviets a "major supplier" of fent analogues? GG find the date, but I believe they used carfentanyl in aerosol form during the chechnyen theater hostage situation. (w/o proper naloxone on-hand to deal with it 8o )

qwe said:
this article is so full of drug war irony, i can't stand it.
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RIGHT??!!
I'm sure the apap-cut is more like heroin-laced ecstasy than reality, unless someone has data/experience with that. And if people are od'ing on their powders, it's because it's cut with something stronger than heroin, otherwise they're being poisoned by an unknown cut.


With the people in this thread, I'm hoping I can get an answer to this-
Is there enough thebaine produced in world-wide poppy #'s to support global demand for opiates through fentanyl analogues? I know there's a shortage of raw-opium, but never could find out if it was possible to overcome it through science..
 
I know there's a shortage of raw-opium, but never could find out if it was possible to overcome it through science..
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I read an article a while back about a chemist who apparently syntesized morphine base from cola syrup, I don't know much if anything about organic chemistry but that article was full of advanced methodology, was intresting, even to my layman brain.
 
Reports in South Wales, provided to local drug services from police etc were warning about the cut with barbitarites shit that has been about during Nov / Dec. There were several overdoses down this way around then and reports from ambulance staff stated that naloxone was failing to bring individuals around even in the early stages, as would be expected, hence, the powerful sedative blame ??.
This week, police reports emailed to all local drug services have talked of 17 deaths in this area since January, but who knows now if it isn't back to the usual mixture of vals / alcohol and gear - (the gear being much better here now)
 
Mora- I'm pretty certain you need thebaine(or codeine or morphine, but has to be from the opium plant IIRC) to create any synthetic-/semi-synthetic opioid, but am not from a chemistry background.
Would like to know the answer to that tho; I know it wouldn't make much difference in reality, but it's certainly 'interesting' if we have the raw materials + the science to make enough opiates for demand, but simply aren't doing so..
 
Yea Sanger I agree with you I was always under the impression that you needed the proper raw poppy materials to create opiates, which is why that article really intrested me. I will try to find it.

Also, just because it may be possible to do what was stated in that article (which I cannot even validate because I know nothing of chemistry) it doesn't mean that it would be practical, know what I mean? May cost 10x as much money to create it from cola syrup as opposed to poppies.
 
Oh, on the "Semi-Legal Barbiturates" front, I think there were cases of similarly questionable Quaaludes being added, which is a sure-fire recipe for death and disaster :\

On the Thebaine front, it's required in the manufacture of Oxycodone, Oxymorphone, Nalbuphine, Naloxone, Naltrexone, Buprenorphine and Etorphine (so says the God Wiki).
 
^ theoretically, of course. practically, depends, what are you working with...? from scratch? it takes some time and in some cases a lot of technical knowledge and skill, but yeah any molecule can be synthesized from scratch...

practically/economically, you need the thebaine and poppy alkaloids, at least with current technology and available resources...
 
Mora- I'm pretty certain you need thebaine(or codeine or morphine, but has to be from the opium plant IIRC) to create any synthetic-/semi-synthetic opioid, but am not from a chemistry background.
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Nah, the synthetic opioids aren't derived from natural opiates, fentanyl and pethidine analogues are probably the most common. Of course, any opiate can be made by total synthesis, but there are many for which a typical, economical synthesis would not involve morphine or thebaine.
 
So why the "problem" with opium-shortages reported in some countries? Same old BS? (prohibition, cash, etc)
I guess it seems a bit odd that opium production has increased so much the past couple decades, yet there's still a lacking from a medical standpoint..
 
Hopefully, but doubt it :/

I'm unsure how on earth *ANY* nation can seriously keep things illegal when almost a decade of decrim in portugal *just* ended, showing POSITIVE societal benefits. Absurd.
 
^ yeh but didnt initiation into heroin go up by 5 % as well? by de-stigmatizing it.

another, probably the main, issue with legalization is it will basically fuck up the careers of many, many massive criminal organizations. what will they do when their main source of revenue is rewired? maybe amp up the extortion, political corruption and such like before prohibition... its kind of hard to reverse things that big and long-going.
 
Raw usage went from 0.7% to 1.1%, hardly a worry IMO. Didn't catch the initiation rates, but let me say that I kind of agree with where you're coming from in that regard, but you need to understand it's a timely process. Let's say heroin use jumps - that may indicate to some that the policy didn't work. If one hasn't allowed the time for this new wave of heroin users to become junkies, then one hasn't allowed all the mechanisms of a drug-friendly society to operate. Specifically, the deterrent effect of seeing junkies hasn't permeated, because that comes after this wave uses, becomes junkies, and then the next wave is influenced by that. Since we're talking social groups, these waves are much quicker than a familial generation, but I'm at a loss on how to apply a specific timeline there.

It will fuck their careers up, well most anyways - is that a bad thing in your eyes? Do you like what's happening in the streets of Mexico, and the US, due to prohibition?

And fucking up their careers /= them just finding other stuff, it = them losing tons and tons of members due to massive losses in operations and profit, I mean there's many groups that would pretty much immediately implode if the floodgates were magically opened.

I disagree with your worry about it being "like before prohibition" once they're made legal, as it ignores the explosion in these groups' financial and member #'s due explicitly to prohibition. It's their main food source, it goes away, they get skinnier, simple as that. Sure, some will resort to other crimes, but just like happened to the mobs during alcohol's prohibition, who all but faded away, so will many in the major trafficking organizations. There's simply not enough $ to keep those mouths fed if drugs become legal, it's the only thing that allows their #'s and no amount of theft or corruption will ever change that.
 
you're absolitely right about anti-prohibition being a long-term solution, and that prohibition only adds to an already hefty pile of problems [adds like 1 million percent onto it, no doubt!]/ its just that i dont see a way out of it. most common folk have already been brainwashed. and their vote matters to the people in power NOW, not a generation from now. and those cartels have a lot of muscle.

my point was only that so much revolves around the prohibition state of things, that it will take a lot to reckon with pro-prohibition forces.
 
I agree - BUT it HAS to happen at some point, I'm just wondering whether it'll be more of a situation with: Heavy US-intervention against cartels, while drugs are demonized further in the US. OR: Legalization in the US and a restructuring of the supply chains/distribution networks that supply the drugs.

And I dunno re "lot to reckon with pro-prohibition forces". I think that presumes too much, specifically, it's like you think DEA/GOV/etc really are "pro-prohibition". Honestly, I think many would be surprised to see how many are "anti-prohibition, but trying to do what they can in teh current state of things". I mean, we're generally pro-legalization around here - does that mean we're generally pro-cartel?
 
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