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Opioids Fentanyl - can you spare 5 minutes, it could save someones life.

C

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Bluelighter
Joined
Apr 12, 2013
Messages
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Hi,
I'm in the midst of writing an article for Drink and Drugs News, the standard monthly magazine aimed at those in the HR business in the UK (but read by many other groups, I'm sure). The DEA have published a route thus -

Russia<-Estonia->Finland->Norway->Sweden-?Denmark

In 2014, 5g of Fentanyl was found in the far North of Scotland. Doesn't sound much but ignoring the exact potency, it's over 400g of morphine, Another 19 bags with 0.05g of a fentanyl containing powder were also found. 2 Deaths were recorded. 3 months later, another fatality occurred. On searching the victims home, 1 empty and 1 wrap containing 0.11g of a fentanyl containing powder.

I appreciate people being cagey about their location,but that would be a big help. I''m just looking for a few answers to see if we can gauge the possibility of it being used as an active cut in heroin, sold under another name (they used 'China White') or even the specific compound. Some 5 years ago I caught a Swedish forum in which analogues were compared. The euphoria & respiratory depression are mediated by the same sub-receptor. The board suggests that it was sold by chemical name (not IUPAC, just 'blah,blah(,blah)fentanyl'.

OK, so that's the reason I'm asking. I don't get paid for the article but timely information can save lives - I am proactive, not reactive.

1-Have you ever been offered unprescribed medicinal fentanyl?
2-Have you ever been offered illicitly produced fentanyl (or analogues) by a nickname?
3-Have you ever been offered illicitly produced fentanyl or fentanyl analogues by their real name?
4- *OPTIONAL* what country do you reside?

As you can see, I am in no way inferring that you did anything immoral or illegal. I think a few people who look at the pharma. chem forum might be sick of my name already. This data will be used anonymously and only for HR use. The route is described in an issue of Microgram as bald information. Obviously the DEA have a quite different agenda so I am in their hands when it comes to the truth. Sadly, other than English, Ik spreek een kleintje Nederlands - Waarom? Want ik ben een idiootje :) I thank you all in advance. I will credit the site and anyone who wants their BL name on the credits (you never know, a credit in a HR magazine could be the start a career. Lastly, I will post the article on Bluelight before it is available anywhere else so that people can make corrections, decide to be omitted or admitted. I want to give everyone a voice.
 
I live in the USA, and while yes I've been offered and taken fent', I would think that most OD deaths that occur from fent', are from users who had no idea that they were ingesting it. Heroin cut with fent' has been an issue on the east coast for years, and has now made its way into the midwest too. Now there is multiple theories of where this lethal cut is introduced, some say low level dealers add it to 1 bag per 100, to purposely cause an overdose, so that other users seek out that stamp/brand. Now I think that this is the case with some of the scenarios, I think ultimately it stems from further up the pecking order. Either way, it is a huge issue in the heroin scene and needs to be adressed. I appreciate your efforts and for shining light on the subject. Good luck with the article!


- Hopeless Soul
 
I thank you for your input. I worded the questions so nobody has to admit to anything illegal. Interesting that it's the east coast as the DEA seem to think it's Mexican-made so I would expect it to be an issue in the south. New York is a hub so it's hard to say where it came from originally. If people are selling it AS fentanyl, that shows some user acceptance. The fact that it's also an active cut suggests it's not 100% accepted. All I can add is please try not to use alone and make sure you have naloxone. My best wishes to you and everyone you care for.
 
No, heroin cut with fentanyl is historically and currently a huge problem concentrated in the Northeast megapolis between MA and NYC. It's especially bad there now, I have many friends who have died in recent years, fatality rates are through the roof. It's also starting to become a big problem in the northern midwest as noted, like Wisconsin. It's not really a problem in the southwest because the heroin consumed here is the less refined mexican black tar as opposed to the white powder sold on the east coast. I have been offered prescription fentanyl once but never any analogues nor have I ever heard of anyone I know in person who has. Almost the entirety of the ODs attributed to fent or fent analogues were unknowingly consumed as heroin. I'm also guessing that the illicit fent or fent analogues that have been showing up in heroin are either imported from eastern Europe, China, or maybe even produced domestically. I doubt it comes from Mexico as the cartels wouldn't sell black tar if they had the resources to refine all their heroin to a more easily cut purified form.
 
It looks like fentanyl labs are springing up in the midwest as well. Lot of lab busts in Seattle. In Europe, a daily paper in Norway said that they had the second highest heroin overdoses in the EU - apart from Estonia. They also mention that synthetic drugs are replacing heroin. It's difficult to get data because if it's mixed with heroin, the different analogues all have different masses and are so strong that the tiny amounts can get lost 'in the grass' in GC-MS of samples. You also have the same problem as the US. If a drug is named that has caused fatalities, they just aren't giving it the oxygen of publicity.

It appears in pockets (suggesting small-scale production or distribution) and specifically when the quality of heroin is low but id mostly not accepted by users so it an active cut.

The more I know, the more we can do to make things safer for all.
 
I live in the USA.

Yes, I have been sold a fentanyl analogue in the Bay Area as 'China White', many people, including a friend of mine died overdosing on this shit. Being from the East Coast I could tell it wasn't heroin based on the smell and the way it broke down in the water (like cocaine).

I've also been sold fentanyl patches that were diverted to the black market multiple times.

I'm sure in the 6-7 years of shooting dope in the NYC area and often getting dope from philly, that I was sold fentanyl a few times, based on some experiences where I was on way beyond a blocking dose of buprenorphine, and the 'heroin' shot right through the bupe like it was it's bitch. Fentanyl (and it's analogues, at least the ones I've tried) also has a very unique feeling that sets it apart from other opioids, they're not very euphoric, they're really overwhelmingingly strong and sedating, but theres none of the warmth. It's a 'cold' opiate.

I actually applaud anyone who is trying to do something to stop this fentanyl craze. If you sell fentanyl or an analogue as china white heroin, you are attempting murder, basically (unless you're such an uncaring and dumb drug pusher that you don't know that it's fentanyl either). Sure, I believe people have the right to use and abuse fentanyl if they want to and are aware of the risks, but when someone buys fentanyl under the guise of a different opiate, well it's just incredibly unethical. I remember one of my friends died, another one too, flatlined in the bathroom of a sandwich stop but they saved him, and a bunch of other people were OD'ing too. And the dealer, we came to find out later, knew it wasn't heroin, but an analogue that he was getting for incredibly cheap and then selling one point for the price of three, but being the bay area, most of the users there have not done real East Coast Powdered heroin, and thought it was the real deal and were willing to spend the extra two hours panhandling to make the extra twenty bucks for something that wasn't tar heroin and had a good chance of killing them/us.
 
There is some dispute as to plain fentanyl breaking through buprenorphine suggesting an analogue. Obviously, it's a guess and of no practical use to users but if plain fentanyl is about, an analogue some 36 x as potent so naloxone may well fail. Put it this way - Spaznez used it in the Moscow theatre siege so it's a fine line between drug and chemical warfare. So, as I always say, try to avoid using alone, have naloxone and if it doesn't work, chest compressions still move air in and out of the lungs (I can understand that in such a community, people fear buddy breathing so this is an alternative.)

Thanks once again, My best wishes to you and to everyone you care for.

I now have another question - if there was a simple test where you put a speck of solution onto a circle on a cardboard test-kit & it gave a specific, clear indication of fentanyl, would you try a test shot? I know it's hard when you are sick but if 10 seconds could tell you that a test shot might be a good idea, would this be used? There is no legal reason I know of preventing these test cards from being introduced, it just requires a high definition/low mass (for cost reasons). Would this save lives?
 
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I think it would.

I'll tell you from all my experience of being a junky and living with junkies for years, generally the attitude is one of shocking apathy and nihilism. When a drug starts killing people, I'd try to get it, not because I wanted to kill myself, but because I want the best dope , or strongest opiate I could get, and I was willing to risk dying for the perfect high. However, if a drug contained fentanyl or an analogue I'd want to know, I'd definitely still do it, but I'd be more cautious. This is just an honest answer to your question, and I would say that most 'hard core' or 'deep in' addicts would respond the same way. For instance, when that fent analogue was going around in the bay, I only decided to try it after it killed a couple people, which is fucking twisted, granted, but look at it from this perspective, I was a homeless dope fiend/tweaker, that made his money by panhandling and middle manning for other people, so I wasn't a rich junky and lived from fix to fix, and usually I just got well. So if there was a chance that some illicit drug could get me high a couple times, for only an extra ten bucks, I'd be enticed.

Also, every junky thinks they're immortal, most of us practically are, and should have died a hundred times over, so there is good reason behind this logic, until we start seeing our friends die or we die.
 
I will look hard at the chemistry of a test that uses bioluminescence - it spots things down to lower concentrations. throughthewormhole, thanks for that - we are uncovering the route, the practices and the dangers. Thanks to all and the article is pressing forward. I couldn't have got this far without all of your help, so thank you to all. The more reports the better. I'm concerned with the users safety and nothing else.

Please, keep them coming and we can figure out the best HR without people ending up stuck with an unspecified mixture.
 
An update. The fake 80mg Oxycodone tablets appear to have been produced in Estonia. The article points out that the worldwide publicity of Oxycodone as a widespread drug of abuse in the US has actually provided free advertising for the Organized criminals. As throughthewormhole pointed out, if it's inside the Arctic circle, the only cities are Murmansk and Tromsö. In Estonia, it's predominantly the Russian-speaking demographic who form the core demographic. Ethnic Estonians prefer club-drugs.

Although I've been looking, my linguistic limits mean that I am having trouble finding newspaper articles in Finland, Norway & Sweden that refer to illicit fentanyl because I'm relying on Google translate.

This is turning into a larger work than originally intended but while the EMCDDA monitor trends, I'm looking into the REASONS for it's spread. It appears that the chemists who made a multitude of isomers have gone and only fentanyl and occasionally 3-methyl fentanyl are now encountered. The latter is something we need an early warning on since it's been responsible for 1100 deaths and is SO potent (56 x fentanyl) that it's virtually impossible to make a safe format. It could be that the decimation caused by a small, test batch convinced the makers that it was LESS profitable since so many users die so quickly.

Still early days and PLEASE ask anyone else you know who may be able to add more information and some help in the Scandinavian languages would be much appreciated.

In tandem with the paper, I'm also busy looking into a cheap, simple test where a single drop of the solution will give a clear colour-change. A difficult problem but if you know that your H is cut, you can test the stuff in the usual manner. I feel that this matter is so serious - we need to look after each other.

With thanks - Sean
 
IMPORTANT UPDATE - apparently their have been seizures of tar heroin with fentanyl added. There does not seem to be almost any form of heroin that MAY contain fentanyl. I do not know where those solid lumps of H come from but, if you're lucky, the evil of fentanyl MAY not have reached it. The whole market is in a state of huge flux, hence the paper, but I have to look at Poland - Russian statistics are next to useless since with no HR, nobody knows the number of users. I also discovered that it was as late as 2013 that Canada started testing ODs for F!
 
Heroin laced/cut with fent is appearing in the southeastern US as well. The good thing is that it is quite visibly different than the white/grey flaky stuff we normally see, appearing as hard, dark chunk with an almost glass like appearance at times. My suspicions are on fent as it busts thru suboxone/subutex block, and it also does not give a nod. One moment you are fine, the next you are collapsed on the floor, cyanotic. Ive seen 3 people in the last two weeks go straight the fuck out on very small amounts, one was a 260lb dude with a decent tolerance who collapsed within a minute of shooting up just a small 20 bag. Even 100% pure heroin would not cause such a reaction with him.
 
In the UK, a couple of guys were selling 10mg bags of pure fentanyl and it killed 3 people but being in a remote area, the 2 Estonians were caught with 19 bags x 10mg and 20 bags of 20mg!

Right now it's chewing patches (lot of pharmacy thefts & cut into H. I guess we all know the next step.

The only good things about 'cooks' is that they only tried to make 3MF once and it killed 6 cooks! I mean 1400 x heroin in potency. Only Spaznez have training in it's use and even then, naloxone won't reverse it. You need nalmefene... or, better, it's allyl homologue, The UK is on the brink and I want to find the best HR. Canada has had limited success with used patches being returned but these 'shady 80s' have turned up in Northern Ireland - part of the UK.
 
I was sent FuranylFentanyl by mistake when I wanted to buy U4 once, I still did it. I finished 2 grams of Fu-f in about 2 weeks, it's quick, boring. You'll miss it when its gone though.
 
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