Could a forced opiate addiction/withdrawal be used as torture/get someone to talk

[Branggen]

What do you guys think, when I was in my bad opiate phase I bet I woulda given up all kinds of information for a dose, not that I know anything anyone would particularly want to get out of me.

What if a spy got caught, was forced onto huge opiate doses and was only allowed to get more if information was given. You guys think that could be effective?

 

[Bella Figura]

It could in theory, but it really depends on the individual and their capacity for handling discomfort. Their captors would probably be better off just torturing them the old fashioned way with pain...

 

[negrogesic]

Don't they do this in some movies? Like the french connection?

(Gonna move this to drug culture btw.)

 

[4meSM]

I'd say only if the person was already addicted to opioids. Otherwise it wouldn't be very efficient because opioid dependecy takes a while to develop, they would have to keep him high constantly possibly for weeks or longer before the WD symptoms even start getting uncomfortable.
Honestly the worst part about that situation would be that they're keeping you captive for a fucking long time and you don't even know what's going to happen to you. Personally I probably wouldn't even care about going into opiod WD, I'd just want to get out of there ASAP.

I'd take opioid WD before torture every single time, specially if they're the kind of people who really like to fuck you up really good (things like mutilation, burning, breaking bones, stuff involving animals, etc...).

 

[Phoenix_03]

Wasn‘t this a story line on the show 24? He had injections of heroin forced on him (Jack, Keifer Sutherland’s character) then he was let loose, a shivering miserable junkie. I forget all the details i was a kid but I remember him looking all strung out.

 

[Bella Figura]

They did it on Homeland TV show as well, the main character got kidnapped by some gang and he ends up injecting himself with heroin to cope with the misery. Not quite torture I guess.

 

[Burnt Offerings]

They did it in that show "The Shield", too, when they got that one gang member's father to rat on where he was hiding cuz he (the father) was an out-of-control heroin addict who they arrested and sent to "Jonestown", lol (i.e. a prison cell where he'd be ignored as he went through w/d)

People routinely exaggerate how bad opioid w/d is, though, imo/ime

 

[Phoenix_03]

They did it in that show "The Shield", too, when they got that one gang member's father to rat on where he was hiding cuz he (the father) was an out-of-control heroin addict who they arrested and sent to "Jonestown", lol (i.e. a prison cell where he'd be ignored as he went through w/d)

People routinely exaggerate how bad opioid w/d is, though, imo/ime

I’ve never gotten to the “baby crawling on the ceiling” hallucinating withdrawal they depict in Trainspotting, which i can’t take seriously, but i could be wrong. They either make it look nuts like that or like it’s really nothing, we‘re just being babies about it. If you know you know, if you don’t you don’t .

 

[Snafu in the Void]

I'm pretty sure, as a spy, I would be more concerned about real physical torture than withdrawal torture.... well idk... maybe if you fed someone 50mg of xanax per day for a few weeks then took them off.... wow that would be fucking brutal and they'd probably die

idk that is fairly sadistic

 

[deficiT]

... you feeling alright there bud?

 

[Phoenix_03]

I'm pretty sure, as a spy, I would be more concerned about real physical torture than withdrawal torture.... well idk... maybe if you fed someone 50mg of xanax per day for a few weeks then took them off.... wow that would be fucking brutal and they'd probably die

idk that is fairly sadistic

50 mg of xanax a day? I probably would come to 2 months later with no memory of what had been going on the whole time.

 

[Branggen]

Well considering all the shows this seems to have been done in Im sure its not thaaat effective as we probably would have heard about it. Now im thinking though, would actual straight up torture be worse on hallucinogens? Maybe make people fear the pain that much more?

 

[Branggen]

I was told by a doctor that opiate withdrawal is so hard to fight because your brain literally starts to think you need it for survival, in a subconscious sort of sense

 

[Phoenix_03]

Well considering all the shows this seems to have been done in Im sure its not thaaat effective as we probably would have heard about it. Now im thinking though, would actual straight up torture be worse on hallucinogens? Maybe make people fear the pain that much more?

I think that would be a much more effective way to really try to fuck with someone's head. Dose them with a large dose of whatever psychedelic (the scarier the possible effects, the better) and go from there. I personally think that would be worse and would be a better way to really break someone.

 

[negrogesic]

I’ve never gotten to the “baby crawling on the ceiling” hallucinating withdrawal they depict in Trainspotting, which i can’t take seriously, but i could be wrong. They either make it look nuts like that or like it’s really nothing, we‘re just being babies about it. If you know you know, if you don’t you don’t .

I have. Only once. I had a 4 gram BTH IV heroin addiction once and went cold turkey (supply issue).

Now ive been through heavy methadone withdrawal and all kinds of shit but i only hallucinated once from opioid withdrawal and it was IV heroin.

Open eyed horrifying hallucinations. I looked out the window and saw a three headed beast for out the clouds. Very demonic feeling. Then boom, out of body experience and im suddenly in Isreal during some sort of Armageddon. Im on some battlefield and im fighting on the side of the antichrist.

Whats crazy is in the vision i saw bodies floating in mass in water. The next morning i turn on the TV and that devastating 2005 Sumatra tsunami just hit and on tv i see an eerily similar image of bodys in the water.

Whats crazy is that i was tripping so hard i didnt even really feel the withdrawal symptoms. Just pure insanity.

 

[Phoenix_03]

That sounds horrific. I've been through cold turkey methadone w/d and IV heroin w/d and thought I'd experienced how bad it can get. What you describe is a whole new level. I almost would rather be tripping balls to the point where I didn't feel any physical w/d symptoms. Without scaring the shit out of myself and possibly going insane, though.

 

[pally pete]

They did it in that show "The Shield", too, when they got that one gang member's father to rat on where he was hiding cuz he (the father) was an out-of-control heroin addict who they arrested and sent to "Jonestown", lol (i.e. a prison cell where he'd be ignored as he went through w/d)

People routinely exaggerate how bad opioid w/d is, though, imo/ime

There maybe some truth in that. But you should know there is no way for you to measure someone else's pain/suffering...

 

[negrogesic]

That sounds horrific. I've been through cold turkey methadone w/d and IV heroin w/d and thought I'd experienced how bad it can get. What you describe is a whole new level. I almost would rather be tripping balls to the point where I didn't feel any physical w/d symptoms. Without scaring the shit out of myself and possibly going insane, though.

Only happened once and ive withdrawn from many other opioids. In fact i was once hit with narcan while addicted to 380mg/methadone a day. While that was horribly painful and i started instantly and uncontrollably shitting my pants 3 minutes after in the ambulance, i wasn't hallucinating or disoriented.

I would imagine that i had been on a desert isle and cold turkeying at that same dose of methadone i bet by day 6 I'd be hallucinating. Actually at 380mg a day of cold turkey methadone withdrawal may be strong enough to kill you. Methadone (at high doses) is one of the few opioids you can die from. Methadone withdrawal deaths have been recorded at as low as 200mg.

That one IV heroin high dose withdrawal i had was the only withdrawal i flat out tripped balls. One of the hardest trips of my life. It is full on out of body, almost like an extreme dissociative trip. Open eyed hallucinations but its of a very evil and oddly religious nature. It is of course combined with extreme physical discomfort. In a way it reminds of a salvia trip, which is both dissociative and pain.

Thus the craxy withdrawal scene in trainstopping actually can and does occur in heavy IV addicts who cold turkey.

My guess is that the heroin withdrawal induced psychotomimetic state is kappa opioid receptor mediated.

 

[Snafu in the Void]

50 mg of xanax a day? I probably would come to 2 months later with no memory of what had been going on the whole time.

Yeah, with one hell of a dependence lol

 

[Phoenix_03]

Only happened once and ive withdrawn from many other opioids. In fact i was once hit with narcan while addicted to 380mg/methadone a day. While that was horribly painful and i started instantly and uncontrollably shitting my pants 3 minutes after in the ambulance, i wasn't hallucinating or disoriented.

I would imagine that i had been on a desert isle and cold turkeying at that same dose of methadone i bet by day 6 I'd be hallucinating. Actually at 380mg a day of cold turkey methadone withdrawal may be strong enough to kill you. Methadone (at high doses) is one of the few opioids you can die from. Methadone withdrawal deaths have been recorded at as low as 200mg.

That one IV heroin high dose withdrawal i had was the only withdrawal i flat out tripped balls. One of the hardest trips of my life. It is full on out of body, almost like an extreme dissociative trip. Open eyed hallucinations but its of a very evil and oddly religious nature. It is of course combined with extreme physical discomfort. In a way it reminds of a salvia trip, which is both dissociative and pain.

Thus the craxy withdrawal scene in trainstopping actually can and does occur in heavy IV addicts who cold turkey.

My guess is that the heroin withdrawal induced psychotomimetic state is kappa opioid receptor mediated.

380 mg of methadone? Holy shit. I thought 120 mg was rough. I underestimated how powerful the withdrawals would be and wound up in a detox center a week after starting my CT w/d. I could hardly get out of bed and when I tried getting up to smoke some weed looking for relief I passed out and fell on the floor. It felt like my blood pressure was non existent. It scared the shit out of me and I went straight to a detox.

I can see why heavy or long-term addiction could produce such extreme symptoms. You've been through the ringer, kudos to making it out the other side.