2y ago

More than 80% of New Yorkers who inject drugs test positive for the opioid fentanyl, despite only 18% reporting using it intentionally

www.nyu.edu /about/news-publications/news/2023/may/fentanyl-new-york-city.html

Study reveals widespread use of fentanyl among people who inject drugs in New York City, despite overwhelming preference for heroin

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So if a society wanted to reduce the harm from accidental fentanyl overdoses it might consider legalizing access to pharmaceutical quality opioids.
- Fuck you drug users don't go to church and we can't have that in America /s
- FWIW, fentanyl is laced in everything nowadays, not just opiates.
  
  Sure, and the same harm reduction can be done.
  
  Being ignorant on the matter, could I get some examples?
Why does everything have fentanyl in it? Is it cheaper? Is it a planned thing to get more people to OD? I would think they'd cut it with someone cheap like flour. Unless it's a cost effective way to get you high. If that's the case, I would think there would be more demand for pure fentanyl?
I don't understand what would cause these results.
- Fent is cheap and potent, and so some dealers add it to their heroin (and a couple other drugs, fake pills are also common). Then you can add more cutting agents (like flour), and stretch it even further. However, because it's so potent (50x compared to heroin) a tiny "hot spot" of badly mixed heroin could kill even an addict. As I understand it, deliberating making people OD is largely a myth. While it might get some addict's attention, it also gets the attention of the police.
  It's so potent that cross contamination is a major issue. Drug dealer cuts their heroin on a dirty table, next kind of drug gets cut on the same dirty table. For at least some cases, no one meant for fent to be in there.
  But it doesn't produce as good of a high as other opioids do (I don't understand the mechanics I'm afraid). As I understand it, the demand is mostly heroin addicts who are really deep in.
  Interestingly, from what I remember, it's actually somewhat similar to heroin in that way. Morphine is supposed to be a better high (again, for people not super deep in), but isn't as available. So people use the cheaper and more potent heroin.
- You basically guessed it. Fentanyl is crazy cheap to produce, way more potent than heroin, and because of that you don't need very much to cut other drugs with it. It gets mixed into everything because it's a cheap way to make the drugs feel better and has the added bonus of being ultra addictive. It sounds crazy that they're even cutting uppers like meth and cocaine with it but if done right the user doesn't even realize it's there, just enough to add some euphoria and make you really want more the next day. It's fucking poison.
  Quick edit to add: in pure form it's very dangerous. Just a big poof of the dust from a bag breathed in could be fatal. Very hard to accurately dose for users at such high potency.

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