“a krokodil bite me…i wasn’t in the water (it was a deadly drug)”

“A KROKODIL BITE ME…I WASN’T IN THE WATER (IT WAS A DEADLY DRUG)”

Dr. LaVelle Hendricks, LCDC, ADC, CARTAssociate Professor of Counseling

Texas A&M University-CommerceDepartment of Psychology, Counseling, and

Special Education

Desomorphine

is an opioid first patented in 1932 in the United States that is a derivative of morphine

It has sedative and analgesic effects, and is around 8-10 times more potent than morphine.

Desomorphine attracted attention in 2010 in Russia due to an increase in clandestine production, presumably due to its relatively simple synthesis from codeine. The drug is easily made from codeine, iodine and red phosphorus,

in a process similar to the manufacture of methamphetamine

The street name in Russia for home-made desomorphine is "krokodil" (crocodile), reportedly due to the scale-like appearance of skin of its users

PICTURES

Man found inside!

Due to difficulties in procuring heroin, combined with easy and cheap access to over-the-counter pharmacy products containing codeine in Russia, use of "krokodil" has been on the increase.

The high associated with krokodil is akin to that of heroin, but lasts a much shorter period.

While the effects of heroin use can last four to eight hours, the effects of krokodil do not usually extend past one and a half hours

Krokodil takes roughly 30 minutes to an hour to prepare with over-the-counter ingredients in a kitchen

The medical name for the drug is desomorphine. It is made at home by acquiring codeine, sold over the counter for headaches, and cooking it with paint thinner, gasoline, hydrochloric acid, iodine and the red phosphorous from matchbox strike pads.

while the life expectancy of a Moscow heroin addict is four to seven years, the life expectancy of a krokodil addict is just a year or two.

Krokodil gets its name from the fact that the caustic drug causes an addict's skin to become green, scaly and bumpy like a crocodile's. If the drug misses a vein and is injected into flesh, that flesh will develop abscesses. It is common for addicts to develop gangrene and require amputations. The flesh on some body parts affected by krokodil injections will rot off completely, leaving bare bone.

Withdrawal is savage, much worse than heroin. Heroin can cause sickness and pain for up to ten days but withdrawal from krokodil can result in a month of unbearable pain. Extremely strong tranquilizers are used during withdrawal so the addict does not pass out from the pain. Doctors dealing with addicts say that this is the strongest level of addiction and the hardest to cure. If a person does manage to get clean from krokodil, they may be left with permanent damage like a speech impediment, vacant gaze and erratic movements.

DEA Now Monitoring Krokodil, a Deadly Morphine Derivative

In 2010, up to a million people, according to various estimates, were injecting the resulting substance into their veins in Russia, thus far the only country worldwide to see it grow into an epidemic, Read more:

Appearance: Brownish sludge or power   Street Names: The Rotting Rot Crok Krok Crocodile Krokodil

Routes of Administration:Intravenous 

Side Effects of Krokodil Abuse

Greenish Scaly skinHeadachesNauseaGangreneRotting SoresPorous bone tissueSlurred SpeechSlowed motor skillsBrain DamageDeath

TREATMENTdetox with methadone maintenance

treatment. many people have found that small doses of methadone allowed them to reduce their dependencies