DAC warns against addictive flesh-eating drug |04 November 2013
The Drug and Alcohol Council is issuing a strong alert to all drug users and the population at large against the use of a new highly addictive and dangerous drug known as Krokodil that eats away the flesh and brain of users, turning the skin green.
Krokodil originated in Russia but has spread across the world at an alarming rate. By 2011, Krokodil use were reported in other parts of Europe as well, with Germany, France, Belgium, Sweden, Norway, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine also being affected.
The warning comes after the drug has recently found its way to the USA, and is being unintentionally taken by heroin users. Last weekend five people were hospitalised in the Chicago suburb of Joliet, Illinois, with symptoms similar to cases reported recently by health care providers in Arizona and Oklahoma. It is to be noted that so far this drug has not been reported in Seychelles.
Krokodil is even more addictive than heroin. Once a person becomes addicted to the drug, experts say their health deteriorates quickly and users generally die two years after they become addicted.
The name comes from the green scaly skin that appears where the drug’s been injected that looks like the skin is eating away at itself.
Continual use of Krokodil causes blood vessels to burst, leaving skin green and scaly among addicts eventually causing gangrene with sores which open all the way to the bone and their flesh to begin to rot. It also rots the brains of users and turn them into zombie-like creatures.
Rabid use in Russia has caused up to 2.5 million people to register and seek treatment as addicts and the average life span for a user is only two to three years. The condition can lead to limbs being amputated, but life expectancy for addicts is at the most two to three years, with the majority dying within a year.
Krokodil is a sickening and deadly cocktail of over the counter pain killers, paint thinner, acid and phosphorus. In some cases, petrol is also added.
The resulting mixture is called desomorphine - a derivative of morphine - and is extremely addictive.