Fentany, leading cause of death in the age 18-45 group

Not sure if most people are aware of this but fentanyl accidental overdose has surpassed car accidents as the leading cause of accidental death in the USA.

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/24583-opioid-overdose#:~:text=Drug%20overdose%20is%20the%20leading,being%20the%20most%20common%20cause.

This is not limited to people that you would consider to be drug addicts. In many cases it happens to people that are occasionally using other (many times milder) recreational drugs that have been spiked without informing the user with fentanyl.

Could be something less threating like a sleeping pill, synthetic depressants (downers), counterfeit prescription medication or sometimes counter intuitive things like cocaine or other synthetic stimulants. Of course the most commonly spiked things will be heroine, oxycotin and other strong opioids.

Frankly i have not heard of marihuana being spiked with fentanyl, but i consider it to be perfectly possible, specially since i know for a fact that sometimes dealers spike them with synthetic stimulants like meth.

The issue with fentanyl is that effective doses are extremely small (counted in single miligrams) and it's extremely easy to introduce letal dosis to other drugs as lethal dosis are also extremely small.

So it takes one very small mistake from a dealer to kill the user .

I know this forum is very pro drug use and my recommendation of not using drugs will fall on deaf ears, but if you are the person that must do drugs. I still recommend

1. Plant them yourself.

2. Test them before you take them.

3. Use the legal and regulated route If available.

It still won't be great for your body, but won't kill you.

Simple fix don’t use it

@gotgames: i don't know If you read the og, but my point is that most users of fentanyl are unaware they are using it.

People choose to use drugs. The chance of dying from such a substance could be eliminated really with the right choices.

This is not true. It does happen sometimes but there is a large primary market for fentanyl either standalone or in combination with other things. A troublesome development is mixing it with things like Xylazine (Tranq) which is not an opioid thereby rendering naxolene as an emergency antidote ineffective.

Yeah it's everywhere. Heard many stories about people dropping dead snorting something laced with it. People thinking they are taking a bump of coke and dropping dead from it being laced with fentanyl.

Best action you can take to not have this happen is stop doing drugs all together. This stuff can kill you with a very small dosage. It can be laced in anything. So I'd say don't do drugs. Just go straight edge. It's not good for you to take any drug. I don't do anything anymore (only socially drink and smoke a little pot before bed) , when I was in my younger 20s I was reckless and didn't give it much thought. It was a dangerous mindset then and even more nowadays with this synthetic opioid crisis. Just dont get high, not worth the risk.

Hero time, your time to shine 💪💪💪💪💪 Rollins saved my life probably tbh

A lot of people I knew weren't as lucky.

There is a fair amount of truth to this.

However, some people use because of other issues that led them to drugs in the first place, like sexual abuse or significant mental health challenges.

There is also the very significant complicity of the medical and drug company community that very much kickstarted the opioid crisis in the first place by over prescribing these meds for all sorts of soccer moms, etc.

On the latter point, I am willing to share a story if you want to hear it.

@SUD123456

@Solaryellow: I am retired. I was an executive in a very large company and am quite wealthy. People would consider me to be straight laced and generally conservative which I am. I did smoke some pot in the late 70s and early 80s, but that is all and was many decades ago.

Ten years ago I almost became an opioid addict.

I had a medical problem. I underwent routine minor surgery to fix the problem. The surgery went horribly wrong and led to a series of cascading problems that led to near death and losing a year of my life.

The effect of the initial problems post surgery was to cause my pancreas to declare war on my body. If you are familiar with pancreatic problems you may be aware that extreme pain is often an outcome.

I was started on intravenous opioids. I would get 2-4 hrs of relief based upon a dose of opioids hydro suspended in a 100 ml bag. It would take approx. 14 mins on the flow setting to drain the bag. It would take 6-7 mins for me to start to feel the effects. I would typically receive 5 to 8 doses a day. I would eagerly anticipate the next dose. 'Rush me' is what I wanted as I would experience incredible pain if I went too long. This went on for many weeks.

One night I was watching an NBA game on the TV when I realized it was near time for my next dose. I wanted to watch the game, so I delayed. And a bit more. Then I had a life saving epiphany. I wasn't sure I needed it. But I craved it. I held on to that thought.

Over the next four to six weeks I gamified it...extending time between doses, requesting a lower dose, etc. I weened myself completely off the opioids. All because, and only because, I had a thought that I held on too.

I don't blame the Docs and nurses. I was in legit extreme pain at the outset. Everyone is busy. It is easy for everyone to fall into a routine. I expected relief. They expected to give it me.

The reason for my story is to point out a personal example of the healthcare system creating addicts. Like I previously stated the system prescribed opiates like candy and many people with back pain became addicts within a few weeks.

As it turned out I still had infection, withering, near death, and then months of physical rehab ahead. But had I still been on opioids I would not be alive today.

Like many soccer moms I didn't initially choose to take opioids to get high. Addiction has many source paths.

This is one of the better reasons to legalize, regulate, and allow for the use of most recreational drugs.

Get it from certified sources, from certified retailers. Simple, realistic fix.

The whole notion of "well just don't do drugs" won't fix our problem, it's just a way to bury our heads in the sand while the morally upright teetollers who ironically don't represent christian values while thinking they do can let people continue to die for no reason at all.

This is incredibly ignorant and hypocritical.

First off, they don't intend to use it. This is added to drugs that would be otherwise harmless or pose little risk as a way to get people addicted. So people that ingest fentanyl are more likely than not doing so accidentally.That should be the end of the discussion. But in case that's not enough...

...second, we all do drugs. Aspirin, heart medication, diabetes...any of these can kill us at one point or another, in some way. So if we can accidentally kill ourselves with legal drugs, shouldn't we not take them just like you say we shouldn't take illegal ones? Or does the accidental death only apply to recreational drugs that shouldn't kill you, but do?

@mrbojangles25: i still think the ideal solution you can take as an individual is cease to using all ilegal drugs and legal drugs that you know to be harmful and unnecessary, but as you said solutions have to be realistic and its not realistic that most people will make decent choices for themselves or that they will even abide the law.

So some sort controlled legalization that provides untainted drugs in designated locations, and centers with nurses to do hard drugs, protects against overdose and provide information on fighting addiction is a necessary solution.

Someone recently posted this on reddit, but fentanyl is on track to become as deadly as all other overdose cases combined. Shits crazy.

86% of the fentanyl brought into the country is done so by American citizens. Immigrants bring in .02%.

Who would lace weed with fentanyl? That just sounds like they're trying to murder people.

@silentchief: it's super cheap, makes it stronger and more addictive. I mean, dealers are not famous for their humanity and compassion.

There's a very easy solution to this: legalize and regulate. As long as drugs are illegal you've zero control on them. And legalizing would bring more tax revenue as well. Win-win.

@Icarian: well opioids were legal and easy access for a while. Remember the oxycotin situation?

Don't think there is such an easy solution.

Portland did a lot of that. Look what has happened to that place. Poverty and crime have skyrocketed. Now there are homeless drug users everywhere. Drug laws are good and we should spend more money enforcing them. Screw this legalization crap, even with weed. Legalization of drugs and drug use will only harm society. We have all the data we need now.

Legalization != Liberalization

Drugs must be within a legal framework, and the focus should be on the dealers not the users. The idea of prohibition is idiotic but I do agree that the enforcement of the law, whatever the law might be, is fundamental.

@tjandmia: it's definitely not an easy solution. And even a degree of legalization must come with an awareness program.

The truth is that people love to tell themselves that the drug they consume is harmless and even healthy ("because it has been used for therapeutic reasons ').

And when there is easy access and perception of being harmless is when you end up having the oxycotin situation we had before.

How about don’t be a loser who does drugs?

About this topic, just been reading that drug overdoses account for 2/3 of the reduction of the average life span in the USA