4 ms·
Some of these synthetic opiates are a bit terrifying. There are some research chemicals available that are hundreds or thousands of times more potent than fenta
by deftnerd 10y ago
Some of these synthetic opiates are a bit terrifying. There are some research chemicals available that are hundreds or thousands of times more potent than fentanyl and they're still technically legal.
It's so hard to work with these that even the drug boards say it's suicide to try to work with them without a clean room and a hazmat suit. If you inhale just a little bit of the drug dust in the air it will kill you.
It's gotten to the point where some of these respiratory depressant drugs can be used as a chemical weapon if inhaled.
For instance:
Heroin = 2.5x potency of morphine
Hydromorphone = 7.5x potency of morphine
Fentanyl = 120x potency of morphine
Carfentanyl = 5000x to 7500x the potency of morphine
Methoxyacetylfentanyl = 30,000x the potency of morphine
A lethal dose of Methoxyacetylfentanyl is so small it's not even visible to the naked eye. Some powdered methoxyacetylfentanyl released from a drone over a crowd would be disastrous.
- RcouF1uZ4gsC 10y agohttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equianalgesic https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equianalgesic for more information
- jemfinch 10y agoIs there any reason to treat these as drugs instead of just poisons? We sell all kinds of poisons on the regular basis and don't bat an eye. Are these any more interesting because they're opiates?
- Scoundreller 10y agoIt's the dose that makes the poison. This is 16th century toxicology: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paracelsus#Contributions_to_toxicology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paracelsus#Contributions_to_to...
- zkms 10y ago> Is there any reason to treat these as drugs instead of just poisons? because they have useful medical effects, a safe dose, and a decent therapeutic index. They have accepted uses in human and animal medicine. That the effective (and lethal) doses are both very small (and thus hard to precisely meter and dispense) only becomes a problem for people who can't access pharmaceutical-grade opioids.
- roywiggins 10y agoSome sort of opioid was (maybe probably) used to end the Moscow theater hostage crisis. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_hostage_crisis_chemical_agent?wprov=sfla1 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_hostage_crisis_chemic...
- zzleeper 10y agoThe article says it was carfentanyl, not even that high in the list
- Sephr 10y agoI wouldn't downplay something that is supposedly 5000x to 7500x times as potent as morphine.
- VeejayRampay 10y agoWhat do you mean "not even that high". It seems to be the second most potent opioid on the list.
- sergers 10y agoIn Canada they have identified that Carfentanyl was found in current drugs on the street and after further evaluation was trigger for a strings of od deaths from last year to present that they had attributed to fentanyl. There is of course still fentanyl related occurences aswell still, but scary Carfentanyl was in the wild already for some tims
- Sunset 10y ago>and they're still technically legal. So why not outlaw "any substance which is not already regulated which has _this_ effect on _that_ part of the human brain". Then no matter how anyone tweaks the formula if it has analogous effect it's already illegal. Or switch from default allow mode to default prohibit mode.
- tim333 10y agoThey did in the UK pretty much https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychoactive_Substances_Act_2016 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychoactive_Substances_Act_20...