Goddamnit Russia. Why you gotta be so hardcore about everything?
Well, it appears the Cold War is not yet over... only now the arms race is not in nuclear weapons, but designer drugs. (Cold Medicine Wars?) For years, it appeared that the west had unleashed the worst scourge in the designer drug scene - methamphetamines. Made from homebrew chemistry, this highly addictive chemical has raged across the world's trailer parks; burning down single-wides and rotting teeth for decades now. It's manufacture has foiled all attempts to control it, with the latest iteration being the "mobile meth lab" - which is a fancy way of saying "shaking a fucking bottle like a retard while driving down the road".
Not to be outdone by the capitalist dogs, Russian addicts have introduced their version of the meth epidemic... desomorphine, or Krokodil. Like Meth's ugly bitchy sister, desomorphine (like opiate concentrate) is also produced from cheap over-the-counter cold medicine and can be cooked up using many of the same simple household chemicals like paint thinner, iodine, and red phosphorus to achieve a similar reduction process. Unlike Meth, however, the high only lasts about an hour or so it's not uncommon to see addicts stock up and disappear for weeks as they spend every waking hour cooking their next hour's batch... virtually chaining addicts to their beds.
Now, where Krokodil takes it's most dramatic turn from it's sister scourge is in it's effects. Stepping up the game in true Russian style, the effects of the desomorphine on it's users is scaled as far beyond Meth as the Tsar Bomba was beyond Castle Bravo. While Meth use can certainly be fatal, generally it's physical deterioration and psychosis take years of use to reach Nick Nolte mugshot levels as your body slowly withers away. Krokodil, on the other hand, can do this within months. The drug's name comes from the graying and hardening of the skin near the injection site, creating crocodile like "scales" which fester with abscess due to the toxic residue left in the finished drug. Such areas are highly prone to infection leading to gangrene, causing the flesh to literally rot off the bone in untreated addicts... and amputated limbs in those lucky enough to get treatment. Softer tissues and more porous bone structures (like the lower jaw) degrade rapidly, causing loss of teeth and occasional structural breakdown. This shit literally eats you alive.
The average life expectancy of an addict is 1 to 3 years.
Article in The Independent
Time Magazine Article
Warning: Extremely graphic pictures and video of some of the more severe effects claimed to be due to Krokodil abuse.
Spoiler!
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by yoshiblue
Connect With Us