Some Hidden Dangers of Illegal Drugs

There are a number of hidden dangers to the use of illegal drugs besides the obvious substance abuse problems. One hidden danger is that the people making these drugs or selling them could be lacing or cutting them with other drugs or chemicals that are even more dangerous to your body. This is not just an issue with drugs like methamphetamine, but it is also a problem with marijuana. Marijuana has been known to be laced with PCP, crack, cocaine, and embalming fluid according to the Center for Substance Abuse Research (CESAR).  One of the theories behind why people lace the drugs they are making and selling is to have the buyers become addicted and come back (Clairmont, 2011). Adding other chemicals allows the drug to be more potent, producing a better high, but is also more addictive.  This leads the user coming back for more and more without realizing they are addicted. The person may not even know what they are really addicted to!

There have also been problems with what the drugs are being laced with. One was in 2011 when cocaine was laced with a veterinary drug that ate away the flesh of the ears and nose (Moisse, 2011). The outbreak was especially bad in New York and L.A., but that doesn’t mean the rest of the country was safe from this serious side effect. The tainted drug supply can make its way around the country and even to your town without you knowing that it has traveled that far. It is important to understand that drugs are trafficked in and out of areas which means that there is no guarantee what is going to be in the drugs or where it is really from.

 There was also a similar outbreak of another flesh eating laced batch of “heroin” in 2013. This outbreak was of krokodile, a Russian knock off of heroin that eats away at the flesh (Mukherjee, 2013). Krokodile is taken the same way heroin is, but it is not as synthesized as heroin so the user is in effect injecting gasoline, iodine, and other potentially lethal chemicals, which is even more dangerous than a typical dose of heroin. One of the major side effects of krokodile is the flesh rotting away (Mukherjee, 2013). The first case was found in Arizona, but this the laced drug that has become Popular in Russia, may just now be making its way to other parts of the United States or the world. It supposedly gives a higher high than heroin and it is usually cheaper, but it is a lot more physically dangerous to take (Mukherjee, 2013).

Drug use is dangerous enough to warrant drug rehab facilities to exist in an attempt to offer long term drug rehab for people. Long term drug rehab can easily save lives and literally the flesh of the people that attend. Users can’t be sure of what they are ingesting unless they make the drugs themselves, but even then drugs are dangerous to the body and have undesired consequences. This hidden danger of drugs is not often enough a deterrent of starting a substance abuser from using and abusing drugs as cutting drugs is seen as a normal occurrence despite it having the potential to make a deadly mixture. It hopefully will deter more and more people the more exposure drug lacing gets.