opium and mixing downers with downers

[tvas22]

I was just wondering randomly... why does opium not carry the same dangers as mixing opiates or downers with other opiates or downers? Is it to do with the ratio of opiates in opium? Or just the general amounts...

EDIT: What i meant to say:

opium contains a mixture of different opioids, mainly codeine and morphine (i think?) yet it wouldnt be advisable to mix morphine pharms with codeine pharms as it might cause too much respiratory depression, why is it not a problem when these are in opium?

 

[Turing Machine]

I cannot see that it is any less than very dangerous to mix respiratory depressants with opium. I'd guess that depending upon the genetics and cultivation methods of the plants, some opium might have a slightly decreased risk than its narcotic potency would imply because apomorphine is a dopamine (D1 and D2) receptor agonist and noscapine in low doses has bronchodilation effects. In high doses noscapine has the opposite effect however.

 

[tvas22]

i dont think that i phrased my question well... i meant that opium contains a mixture of different opioids, mainly codeine and morphine (i think?) yet it wouldnt be advisable to mix morphine pharms with codeine pharms as it might cause too much respiratory depression, why is it not a problem when these are in opium?

ill edit my question and title now i come to think about it

 

[Turing Machine]

Well, although taking one or more opioids from illicit sources or in dosages higher than prescribed can be dangerous, mixing opiates with opiates does not have the intrinsic danger of mixing opioids with benzos or alcohol. Doctors prescribe multiple opioids all the time, particularly one long acting or controlled release opioid for constant pain control and another shorter acting opioid for breakthrough pain. Also, in the case of opium, where most of the activity stems from codeine and morphine, the codeine has most of it's activity stemming from morphine being a metabolite, so almost all of the opioid agonist activity is coming from the morphine contained in the opium and the morphine produced as a metabolite of the codeine.

 

[tvas22]

ah i see. thanks for that!

 

[rickolasnice]

^ I think it's if you use your regular dose of say heroin and then you us e a regular dose of say oxycodone.. thats a like a double dose of opiates.. where as a single dose of opium would be made up of different percentages.. those percentages aren't gonna be 100 and 100.

Not explained very well but meh..

 

[nuke]

to od

 

[JamtasticX]

The problem is in your perception of the problem.

If you are smoking opium you are taking them at the same time over time. There would be no difference if you took an equal amount of codiene/morphine at the same time. However, when you are taking them together you realize when you are at a certain level, when mixing them seperately its easier to misjudge.

However, there would be no real difference from morphine/codiene pills or in opium. It's just how well you guage what you do. The problem doesn't come from mixing drugs, its from overdose, and its harder to overdose from taking two substances in 1 pill (opium - yes i know its not a real pill) or two substances in two pills (morphine + codiene)