Arizona doctors and law enforcement officials are warning the public about a dangerous homemade narcotic that can cause human flesh to quickly decay and drastically reduce users’ life expectancy after the drug surfaced in the US state.
Desomorphine, known in Russia as “krokodil,” or crocodile, is an
extremely toxic drug made from codeine-based pills that are then
mixed with iodine, paint thinner, gasoline, alcohol or oil. The
concoction is injected, leading to a shorter but more powerful
high that’s often found with heroin or morphine use.
While krokodil’s popularity quickly grew in Russia in the recent
decade, as heroin is much more expensive and difficult to obtain,
experts think it has made it to the southwestern United States.
“We’ve had two cases this past week that have occurred in
Arizona,” Dr. Frank LoVecchio, the co-medical director at
Banner’s Poison Control Center, told KLTV. “As far as I know,
these are the first cases in the United States that are reported.
So we’re extremely frightened.”
The drug is known for being heavily addictive, with just one or
two injections needed to get someone hooked, as well as for its
dire side effects.
With krokodil, users’ skin rots from the inside out, and they
develop what is known as alligator skin, complete with visible
scaly contusions. Long-time krokodil users literally have their
skin fall off the bone due to ruptured blood vessels and damage
to the surrounding tissues.
Irreversible damage to a krokodil addict’s health comes within a
month of starting to use the drug, as the brain and liver also
start to rot, and the limbs become paralyzed. A user’s average
life expectancy does not exceed two to three years.
According to Russian anti-drug activist Yevgeny Roizman, who was
earlier this month elected mayor of Yekaterinburg, krokodil is
now one of Russia’s top homemade drugs.
A controversial public figure, Roizman has for years campaigned
for a ban on the unlimited distribution in Russian drugstores of
codeine-based pills, which he says are widely used by dealers and
addicts to make krokodil. The founder of the City Without Drugs
and Country Without Drugs NGOs, Roizman has described horrific
cases of krokodil use in his blog, saying that for many
young Russians it becomes “the first and the last” drug.
(WARNING: EXTREMELY GRAPHIC PHOTOS)
The director of Russia’s Federal Drug Control Service, Viktor
Ivanov, has admitted that the surge in desomorphine use across
Russia correlated with the sharp increase of drugs containing
codeine in drugstores. A legal ban on the non-prescription sale
of such drugs in Russia came into force in 2012.
According to figures from Russia’s Bureau of Forensic Medical
Examination, cited by Country Without Drugs, deaths in Russia
from drug overdoses in 2012 rose by 20 percent. In total, some
150,000 Russians died from drug use last year, according to
Ivanov, the Drug Control Service chief. Ivanov has estimated that
in some regions of the country 90 percent of registered drug
addicts use krokodil.
The use and preparation of krokodil has been spreading to
countries neighboring Russia and farther into Europe, according
to various media reports. In December 2011, Poland’s Medical
University of Silesia reported at least one death from krokodil
use in Warsaw, and also said cases of the drug being used had
been confirmed in Germany, the Czech Republic, Ukraine, France,
Belgium, Sweden and Norway.