The US does not use any narcotic opioid at all in medicine anymore for pain specifically. Fentanyl is used as a surgical anesthetic not even a pain drug. Methadone is used to treat withdrawal pain but that is the only pain medicated in America these days.
YOU ABSOLUTELY NAILED THIS. IT IS COMPLETELY FUCKED UP.
That's not true...
This is onbjectively untrue, I personally know numerous people with prescriptions for hydrocodone, oxycodone, oxymorphone, and morphine. Most of these drugs however are only prescribed nowadays for pain much more serious than those in the past, and the people who hold these prescriptions nowadays are either quite old, terminally ill, or struggle with genuinely horrific pain issues. Hell, as a terminally ill teenager I was given three month scripts on a monthly basis of Lorazepam and Hydromorphone just because I was considered terminal, so the idea was essentially "well fuck it, lets just make sure he's comfortable on his way out".
This is definitely a serious problem, I suspect that 7-OH-mitragynine, mitragynine pseudoindoxyl, mitragynine, carisoprodol, homegrown/extracted opium, relatively uncontrolled foreign opioids like tapentadol, and maybe phenibut/floribut/tolibut, cannabinoids, NMDA antagonists, or tianeptine are going to have to be peoples' substitutes for now.
i highly doubt this. It would be a beautiful thing though. If you have opium it’s so easy to make heroin clandestinely. Extracting thebaine and making oxy isn’t going to be done in a clandestine lab by amateurs and any advanced labs in Mexico or wherever are to busy making profitable drugs like fent or meth
With NMDA antagonism there are very high chance what ever pain was the body not healing something. Think of PCP or DXM users snapping their dislocated Jaw back in place and then the repair happen very quickly.
I agree that this likely won't become as widespread as heroin from Papaver somniferum, however the contents of thebaine in Papver bracteatum are significantly higher. Conversion of thebaine to morphine would likely lead to heroin production just starting from P. bracteatum, and I suspect that much less suspicion would be drawn to a chemist acquiring a bunch of P. bracteatum to extract from. Fent production is also relatively simple, but the fact that the precursors for cartel production were being imported from China tells me that they're probably not taking the long route to fent (aka from black pepper) in Mexican laboratories.
Most young people I know (~30 and under) have used methamphetamine while thinking it's normal amphetamine because of fake Adderall. Ask a college student about how long Adderall lasts and many will tell you 16+ hours, it's wild. Heroin is super difficult to find though, it's predominantly just fent that's been stepped on more than an old carpet. I'm speaking from the perspective of specifically the east coast of the US, literally from Maine to Florida.
PCP has made me break toes skateboarding and then just pop them back into place, funny you mentioned that. I confidently landed a backside flip with my front foot (while popping, the one that did the flick) landing directly beneath the truck of my board when I landed halfway up a curb. NMDA antagonists are definitely less than ideal for pain management purposes, but if somebody's in enough pain they'll usually do whatever they need to, to get by. I have Crohn's disease and Ulcerative Colitis, surgery #17 will probably be within the next few months. I've never lived without, and will never be able to live without chronic pain. It's a big part of why I'm as familiar with drugs as I am, and I suspect others will be having to hit the books on pharmacology sooner rather than later as a result of pain management in the US becoming such a shitshow.
The body & brain can act like old married couple causing false pain episodes. NMDA antagonism cuts the cord that allows both to deal with themslves as 2 seprate parts, DXM is potent for this because It lasts 8 ~ 24 hours depending If It HBr or Poli. I could do finger drum on my knee at Speedcore levels for 4 mins the longer I did It the less sore It got.