Fentanyl Dangers

[kgtest]

Smart boy down the street, went to one of the highest rated schools in our state. Found out the boy three doors down OD'd on Fentanyl and is now in a vegetative state. Mom and dad were divorced, but both live in our little beach community 3 blocks apart so they were great co-parents from what I saw at least.

Both parents affluent enough to afford 600+ homes, dad is actually on the lake. Just a massive tragedy. I told DW and she grabbed her heart, exactly as I had when I heard the news. We have lived here 11 years and saw him grow up into a handsome young man. I saw all the fun his friends and he had at the beach, jumping on the aqua trampolines and throwing eachother off.

The dangers of Fentanyl are insane. One pill and it's over. Even growing up as Gen X, I don't think we had accessibility to things that potent. I know there were some backroom shenanigans going on at party's I attended, but I knew it wasn't something I would concern myself with. Super concerned for the next generation.

 

[pacergal]

Fentanyl is designed for intractable pain, most often for cancer, and short term after surgery. Used correctly, it is very helpful.
Very dangerous otherwise. Any street drug is cringe worthy, as there is no way to know the potency.
Every generation has had its "drug of choice". Nowadays, whatever is out there is way more deadly.
I am sorry for the loss of that young man.

 

[dmpi]

Fentanyl is extremely dangerous but sadly that part of the appeal. Addict will continually up their dosage chasing that high. Its no surprise that addicts end up killing themselves.

 

[GenXguy]

Both parents affluent enough to afford 600+ homes, dad is actually on the lake. Just a massive tragedy.

Sad story, but affording over 600 homes? Is that a typo? Even 6 would be a lot, let alone 600.

Fentanyl is designed for intractable pain, most often for cancer, and short term after surgery. Used correctly, it is very helpful.
Very dangerous otherwise. Any street drug is cringe worthy, as there is no way to know the potency.
Every generation has had its "drug of choice". Nowadays, whatever is out there is way more deadly.
I am sorry for the loss of that young man.

In many cases, I heard other drugs are laced with fentanyl, such as in street meds being sold as other pain killers and "Xanax", and mixed in with cocaine and other drugs, so it isn't necessarily being chosen. And more recently, I've heard of them being laced with an animal tranquilizer called xylazine ("Tranq"), making it even more dangerous.

 

[Sunset]

Buying street drugs has always been a risky thing, as the drugs have always been cut/enhanced with something and the seller doesn't care or even know what was added.

Sad story, but it's been happening for many decades with all sorts of drugs.

 

[cathy63]

Sad story, but affording over 600 homes? Is that a typo? Even 6 would be a lot, let alone 600.

I think he meant they each have homes valued at over $600K.

 

[cathy63]

It is tragic and sadly, you can't protect your kids by living in an area where people have $600K homes. All you can do is have compassion and sympathy for the family, and keep talking to your own kids about the choices they'll have to make as they get older. We went through something similar when our daughter was a teen and one of the kids at her school committed suicide.

 

[Time2]

Buying street drugs has always been a risky thing, as the drugs have always been cut/enhanced with something and the seller doesn't care or even know what was added.

Sad story, but it's been happening for many decades with all sorts of drugs.

I had a 50+ yr old drug user living with 80+ yr old mama and others in the house across the street. Lot's of hanger on-ers around. Two women died of overdoses, and when mama died, the 50+ yr old sold the house and with the bundle of cash he was dead of an overdose within a month. Fentanyl according to the police. A 100 house subdivision of $300k homes had 3 drug houses, we are down to zero as far as we know.

 

[disneysteve]

Wealth has no bearing on addiction. Look at how many celebrities have substance use issues or have died of overdoses. Money doesn't protect you from disease.

It is scary what's readily accessible on the street today, from high potency pot to drugs like this, and drugs laced with other drugs. In my practice, and this was probably 10 years ago, we did drug and alcohol testing and had a stretch of patients testing positive for marijuana, which they freely admitted to using, but also for PCP, which they adamantly denied using. What they didn't know is that the pot they were buying was laced with PCP.

 

[MBAustin]

There was an outbreak of fentanyl overdoses in the Austin area last week - 79 total with 9 deaths in just a few days. Fortunately the police seem to have already found and arrested people who were involved in providing the tainted drugs. But there are dozens of heartbroken families as a result.
Don't know how often this is the case, but several of the young people who have OD'd around here thought they were getting Xanax or another anxiety-type drug, and instead it was fentanyl. So all of the victims are not dealing with traditional addiction issues. Even more scary.

 

[Badger]

I never tried anything other than a little cannabis in the 60's but stopped that in the early 70s when it was starting to be laced with dangerous chemicals.
After each of the many invasive surgeries in the past 12 years I was given various types of opiates for pain but I even quit those after a few days and dealt with the pain with marginally effective over the counter pain killers. No way I would have trusted Fentanyl when I was 20. I don't understand the attraction.

 

[Gumby]

....
Don't know how often this is the case, but several of the young people who have OD'd around here thought they were getting Xanax or another anxiety-type drug, and instead it was fentanyl.....

If you stick to getting pharmaceuticals only at a pharmacy, with a legal prescription, you won't ever have this confusion about what you are getting.

 

[GenXguy]

If you stick to getting pharmaceuticals only at a pharmacy, with a legal prescription, you won't ever have this confusion about what you are getting.

If you can get a legal prescription. I'm betting with most of these cases, a doctor wouldn't provide a prescription. My doctor won't prescribe Xanax even if you have a valid medical reason. I've heard some people say their doctor is a hard no on benzos.

 

[disneysteve]

If you stick to getting pharmaceuticals only at a pharmacy, with a legal prescription, you won't ever have this confusion about what you are getting.

Any time a patient tells me they use marijuana my first question is if they get it from a dispensary or buy it on the street because those are two entirely different things.

 

[Koolau]

We keep talking about "over doses" with Fentanyl. Technically, I suppose that is correct, but a better word is probably Fentanyl "poisoning." Most "ODs" with Fentanyl are, as someone pointed out, from "other" drugs (or supposed drugs) WITH Fentanyl included by the drug "maker." So, someone usually doesn't buy a drug "labeled" or called Fentanyl or "contains Fentanyl." MOST people - even people foolish enough to be taking illicit drugs realize that Fentanyl is dangerous. So they buy what they believe to be heroine or coke or Xanax or Oxy, etc. When, in fact, it's "something" with Fentanyl as the main or an added ingredient. When they take the "pill" or shoot the shot, they don't really OD, they are poisoned by the adulterant Fentanyl.

VERY few people OD on illicitly obtained pharmaceuticals such as Xanax or even Oxy. Occasionally, badly mixed heroine causes a string of deaths, but it's the same story of quality control. That's the real issue with Fentanyl. A slight mistake in potency is deadly where as an "overdose" of most drugs doesn't kill - especially not so quickly.

Fentanyl is a wonder drug - in the hospital. Otherwise, it's a poison IMHO. YMMV

 

[Rianne]

This might sound cold and insensitive but how stupid are the dealers? They're killing their customers. I wonder where these drugs are coming from. Fentanyl seems to show up everywhere masked by other seemingly innocent drugs. Let's be honest, in college we experimented quite a bit. And trusted each other. No real harm came to us. Kids will try anything once. But all it takes is once with fentanyl.

 

[frank05]

Children have had home medicine cabinets as a source of drugs for years.

 

[Koolau]

This might sound cold and insensitive but how stupid are the dealers? They're killing their customers. I wonder where these drugs are coming from. Fentanyl seems to show up everywhere masked by other seemingly innocent drugs. Let's be honest, in college we experimented quite a bit. And trusted each other. No real harm came to us. Kids will try anything once. But all it takes is once with fentanyl.

Children have had home medicine cabinets as a source of drugs for years.

The medicine cabinet and the stuff we experimented with was more along the lines of pharmaceuticals - not "mix it up in the sink" kinda crap that passes for drugs these days. Full disclosure: Only thing I experimented with in college was alcohol. I never even saw any pot until after I graduated. BUT, pills were a known quantity back in the day if you raided the medicine cabinet.

Now of days, the "pills" are whatever the drug dealer hands you that LOOKS like a pill you might know. Buyer beware.

I've often wondered if the current epidemic of deaths is self-limiting (all the dummies die!) BUT, NO! "Stupid" - actually, smart really - kids are getting drugs they think they know and one-pill-and-done with some of them. You'd think they'd read the papers or watch TV and knock it off, but you can't fix "stupid" I guess. Too bad, really.

 

[Gumby]

... Let's be honest, in college we experimented quite a bit.....

Maybe some did. I didn't. Not even pot. That was my one and only chance to get a college degree, and my school would kick you out in a heartbeat for drugs. They regularly searched the dorm on Saturdays with the drug dogs and NCIS occasionally would run stings.

 

[Walt34]

Maybe some did. I didn't. Not even pot. That was my one and only chance to get a college degree, and my school would kick you out in a heartbeat for drugs. They regularly searched the dorm on Saturdays with the drug dogs and NCIS occasionally would run stings.

I took a similar position. Not because of the school, but I was majoring in Criminal Justice and headed for a career in law enforcement, which I did get. But at the time (early 1970's) no law enforcement agency that I knew of would even talk to you about employment if there was even a hint of drug use. Which made perfect sense to me. So I stayed far away from anything that even hinted at drug use.

 

[mystang52]

I took a similar position. Not because of the school, but I was majoring in Criminal Justice and headed for a career in law enforcement, which I did get. But at the time (early 1970's) no law enforcement agency that I knew of would even talk to you about employment if there was even a hint of drug use. Which made perfect sense to me. So I stayed far away from anything that even hinted at drug use.

DW and I likewise never did any drugs, not even marijuana (college years were '69-73, so drugs were quite common). One of my kid's friends, who we knew, died a few years ago rom Fentanyl-laced cocaine. Very nice guy, had a good job, and ended up being a wasted life, dying at age 41. I just cannot understand how anyone can do drugs; MAYBE it was potentially less lethal years back. But nowadays these Fentanyl deaths are not uncommon; someone doing cocaine with that risk just boggles my mind.

 

[Koolau]

Maybe some did. I didn't. Not even pot. That was my one and only chance to get a college degree, and my school would kick you out in a heartbeat for drugs. They regularly searched the dorm on Saturdays with the drug dogs and NCIS occasionally would run stings.

You must be a lot younger than I am. Drug sniffin' dogs didn't exist when I was in school.

 

[Route246]

The medicine cabinet and the stuff we experimented with was more along the lines of pharmaceuticals - not "mix it up in the sink" kinda crap that passes for drugs these days. Full disclosure: Only thing I experimented with in college was alcohol. I never even saw any pot until after I graduated. BUT, pills were a known quantity back in the day if you raided the medicine cabinet.

Now of days, the "pills" are whatever the drug dealer hands you that LOOKS like a pill you might know. Buyer beware.

I've often wondered if the current epidemic of deaths is self-limiting (all the dummies die!) BUT, NO! "Stupid" - actually, smart really - kids are getting drugs they think they know and one-pill-and-done with some of them. You'd think they'd read the papers or watch TV and knock it off, but you can't fix "stupid" I guess. Too bad, really.

I did a lot of things when I was younger where I could have easily died but none having to do with drugs. My activities were like riding or driving too fast, hiking and climbing in places without appropriate safety equipment and playing football and getting concussed.

I don't know anyone, and I mean anyone who has an opioid problem. I am sure it is because of demographics. I see all of the laxatives at Costco and CVS and I was told those are popped by people addicted to opioids but I'm not sure about this. My wife had some strong drugs when she had knee surgery and complained about the constipation and I told her to deal with the pain or the constipation and she chose to deal with the pain rather than the digestive tract issues. I had a tooth extraction recently and didn't use the drugs the dentist gave me and opted for double Tylenol and just dealt with the pain.

Not sure about these opioids. What is the typical demographic? Is it a suburbs thing? It may be happening in plain sight and I just don't see it.

 

[disneysteve]

I did a lot of things when I was younger where I could have easily died but none having to do with drugs. My activities were like riding or driving too fast, hiking and climbing in places without appropriate safety equipment and playing football and getting concussed.

I don't know anyone, and I mean anyone who has an opioid problem. I am sure it is because of demographics. I see all of the laxatives at Costco and CVS and I was told those are popped by people addicted to opioids but I'm not sure about this. My wife had some strong drugs when she had knee surgery and complained about the constipation and I told her to deal with the pain or the constipation and she chose to deal with the pain rather than the digestive tract issues. I had a tooth extraction recently and didn't use the drugs the dentist gave me and opted for double Tylenol and just dealt with the pain.

Not sure about these opioids. What is the typical demographic? Is it a suburbs thing? It may be happening in plain sight and I just don't see it.

There is no typical demographic for substance use disorders. It affects all genders, all ages, all races, all socioeconomic groups. It’s an equal opportunity disease. It may be more apparent in lower income populations but that’s just because the higher income people hide it better. There are plenty of wealthy users out there. Elvis. Michael Jackson. John Belushi. Chris Farley. Whitney Houston. Philip Seymour Hoffman. The list goes on and on.

 

[DJRR]

Personally know 3 families that have lost a son in their teens or twenties to Fentanyl. These are upper middle class families that are not economically disadvantaged. However, almost all of my kids friends have some kind of "anxiety" issues. I think social media puts a lot of pressure on young minds. Did my share of stupid in high school, but seems to be much more serious today. Overdose deaths are 100k+ per year so something different is definitely going on.