Krokodil: Russian Nightmare Reaches the U.S.

I have written before on the dangerous synthetic drug Крокодил, which has up to a million users in Russia.  'Crocodile' got its name from the its destruction of the user's flesh, which dies and ends up looking like crocodile skin.  It is easy to make and dirt cheap, which makes it the #1 choice of end-game addicts.

Now, this drug, officially called desomorphine, has popped up along the US border states.  My suspicion is that, since there are not a lot of Russian immigrants with heroin problems downloading recipes from the internet, this is coming across the border along with the rest of the drugs in the hands of Mexican cartels.

We have seen the horrors of cheap meth, but heroin and other opiates have still maintained their relatively higher prices due to the transportation costs.  Crocodile can be made anywhere there is codeine.  While codeine is controlled in the US, it isn't in Mexico, so you might as well get ready for another new industry.  

The next stop for this will probably be the prisons, since heroin is big in the Big House.  However, because US prisoners do get better medical care than their addict counterparts on the streets, they most likely won't have the massive amputation issues that Russian street users end up with.  That won't happen until the drug hits the streets and addicts start using it outside the watchful gaze of the Department of Corrections.

If you observed the law enforcement response to Bath Salts, you can probably expect a very slow reaction to this drug as well.  Why?  Well, it has taken ages for the government to react to Bath Salts, which cause immediate psychotic reactions.  Now, Krocodil is much more subtle, acting like heroin until the user's body starts to disassemble.  Meanwhile, if it is indeed coming across the US border from Mexico, the politics of the border will likely having lots of politicians not wanting to look at this problem and have to explain away, once again, another reason why the border needs to be controlled.

As for the earlier discussion we have had about legalization of drugs, I think Krokodil (desomorphine) is just one more example of why legalization is dangerous business: even if you legalize heroin, addicts will very often go so far down the tunnel of addiction that they will no longer be able to afford their habits.  Do you make drugs free?  If not, then they will still commit crimes and also turn to their favorite high in a new form.

Get ready for another episode of 'Day of the Living Dead.'

Here, you can see what doctors had to do to save this man's life.

Here, you can see an Arizona TV report.  I think the doctors get that there's a problem even with only a few documented cases.