Krokodil formally known as desomorphine is a massively powerful opiate and is vastly cheaper than heroin to produce; it is consumed by injection by a hypodermic needle. The drug can be “cooked “almost anywhere using a variety of household ingredients such as codeine; found in most pain killers sold over the counter, red phosphorus; obtained from gathering the shavings after striking a matchbox strip and certain common items such as gasoline and red iodine can also be used, Reportedly users say the drug is a pleasure- inducing a high that is significantly stronger than heroin. (Boslaugh 2015). Desomorphine is abused for its opioid-like effects and as with all opioids tolerance, dependence and addiction arise from regular use. The effects of …show more content…
The drug is said to actually “rot” their skin and organs from within. It has also led to a massive increase in the number of AIDS and HIV victims. (Boslaugh 2015). The possibility exists that users will develop gangrene and sometimes flesh falls off the bone in chunks, giving the drug its name of the “flesh eating drug” or the “zombie drug”. Addicts often become severely disfigured for life, suffering serious scaring, bone damage, amputated limbs, speech impediments and poor motor skills.(Csiernik 2014). The pharmacology of desomophine known to be a synthetic morphine-like substance is not completely understood although in studies using both rats and monkeys; tolerance developed more slowly to desomorphine then morphine and it was seen to be far more effective as a general depressant and analgesic although with the effect of being three times more toxic. Despite its lack of therapeutic use clinical studies in humans has demonstrated that desomorphine appears to be an adequate substitute to morphine in symptomatic treatment due to the fact that it produces relatively brief but powerful narcotic and analgesic