Desomorphine, a Krokodil drug which is also known as "Zombie drug" as it internally bites up one who has been injected. The drug was discovered in the early 1930s and named desomorphine as it is a faster-acting alternative to morphine. It was then prepared, because it could be administered less in quantity than morphine thereby reducing the risk of nausea and various other side effects of opiate analgesics. Krokodil drug first appeared in Russia in 2002. Siberia was the first to come under the impact of the drug, later, it spread throughout the country. It has already spread out in the parts of America as well.
These days, the drug is smuggled all over the world including the United States. The drug is cheap, highly effective and makes people addicted in a split second. One, who starts taking the drug, faces the problems like scaly patches in the beginning and then the condition keeps on getting worse.
Why is the drug named Krokodil?
The drug got its name from the way it acts on the victim's body. The one who it is injected starts turning green, scaly and bumpy like a crocodile. If the injection goes wrong and despite injecting it into veins, it gets into flesh, it causes festers. Then, the addict's body starts developing gangrene and compulsorily requires undergoing amputations. Gradually, the Krokodil injections will completely rot off the flesh leaving bare bones and turn addicts into Zombies.
The drug got its name from the way it acts on the victim's body. The one who it is injected starts turning green, scaly and bumpy like a crocodile. If the injection goes wrong and despite injecting it into veins, it gets into flesh, it causes festers. Then, the addict's body starts developing gangrene and compulsorily requires undergoing amputations. Gradually, the Krokodil injections will completely rot off the flesh leaving bare bones and turn addicts into Zombies.
How Krokodil was manufactured and what are its harmful effects?
The drug is prepared at home with paint thinner, gasoline, hydrochloric acid, iodine and the red phosphorous from matchbox strike pads. The mixture of all the ingredients later cooked with codeine, which is highly sold for headaches. The entire procedure takes just takes half-an-hour to liquefy the compound, which is then injected into a vein. The effect of the drug lasts for 90 minutes to two hours. The Krokodil addicts can cook it for themselves as it is cheap, takes little efforts and leaves stronger effects for a longer time.
The drug is prepared at home with paint thinner, gasoline, hydrochloric acid, iodine and the red phosphorous from matchbox strike pads. The mixture of all the ingredients later cooked with codeine, which is highly sold for headaches. The entire procedure takes just takes half-an-hour to liquefy the compound, which is then injected into a vein. The effect of the drug lasts for 90 minutes to two hours. The Krokodil addicts can cook it for themselves as it is cheap, takes little efforts and leaves stronger effects for a longer time.
Why do people migrate from Heroin to Krokodil?
Russians are huge Heroin addicts; they are millions in numbers. For many of them, the Heroin doesn't seem affordable and so to quench their yearning they discovered the new way, and the new drug, Krokodil. The drug costs them one tenth the price of Heroin. But, when we talk about the life expectancy of Heroin addicts, it is four to seven years whereas a regular krokodil addict ends his life in a year or two.
Russians are huge Heroin addicts; they are millions in numbers. For many of them, the Heroin doesn't seem affordable and so to quench their yearning they discovered the new way, and the new drug, Krokodil. The drug costs them one tenth the price of Heroin. But, when we talk about the life expectancy of Heroin addicts, it is four to seven years whereas a regular krokodil addict ends his life in a year or two.
Certain Russians have figured out that the effects of this drug will intensify if cooked in eyewash solution and as we all know, eyewash solution cannot be consumed.
This drug is sure to create havoc in every organ of the body.
Usually the environment in which the drug is prepared isn't very hygienic.
It seems like the conditions are dirtier than a regular public washroom!
This drug is injected intra-venous therefore damages the veins close to the surface of the skin. That thereby renders the compulsion of the user to find different sites for administering the drug each time.
The veins already utilized once go into permanent damage and cannot be used once again.
But imagine the pain?!
So finding different veins on parts of your body for further use can get really tough for regular users.
Although, this drug is really cheap but for people who inject it regularly, it could get very expensive.
The best way people do it is by pooling all their cash together, sharing a needle and buying a shot or two together.
Since veins go into permanent damage, there are small pockets of drug along with blood pooling under the cutaneous layer of the skin that is known as a hematoma.
The drug affects the skin, fascia and muscle tissue underneath and gangrene starts to set in.
Gangrene is basically rotting of the tissues and a person's skin usually starts to look like this.
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Obviously, the damage isn't contained by the veins and it spreads to various tissues of the body via the circulation.
Slowly, 'scales' from the skin tend to get peeled off and the skin resembles a crocodile's skin.
The blood from the damaged veins tend to escape into the interstitial space and it cannot be drained by body's natural mechanism because it is damaged blood.
Hence, it builds up as a swelling and results into a painful inflammation. It may also cause cellulitis of the entire limb.
Clearly, the body will not accept any dead or decaying part and soon the necrotic skin and surrounding tissues will start to peel off leaving the inflammation to continue into the deeper structures of the body.
Once anybody starts using this drug regularly, they would probably have only a year left to live!
In distal areas, the part will automatically fall off like a gangrenous part falls off.
A person injecting 'Krokodil' regularly will end up having a body exactly like a Zombie!
As the user runs out of sites to administer the drug, more tissue starts decaying and falling away.
The gray tissue in the above picture is receding bone.
These pictures are taken from real live people and not dead bodies.
So basically, people who use Krokodil end up having their flesh peeled away and live their lives like in The Walking Dead.
The preparation of these drugs happens mostly in Afghanistan and from there it is shipped to former Soviet republics Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and – especially – Kazakhstan.
Later on, it is transported to local markets of Russia for the citizens.
Krokodil became popular owing to the fact that Russia put a lot of pressure on the Soviet states to stop the trading of heroin. It ended up to be cheaper than heroin because now nearly 100,000 Russians use it regularly.
There are about 200,000 live (for now) users from Ukraine administering this drug.
Since a regular user's life expectancy is under one year, it can be naturally said that they won't be alive for long.
So probably they must be alive when this article was created and dead by the time you have read it!
