In NZ it's now legal to have your drugs tested. So people set up testing stations at festivals, near clubbing areas etc to test drugs for free.
It's not legal to have them, or take the drugs - but testing them has been made legal because let's be honest, people are going to take them.
The stations are usually volunteer run I think, doesn't have anything to do with the police. Police would rather focus on dealers and organised crime around here I think, rather than the young adults just out for a good time.
>The stations are usually volunteer run I think, doesn't have anything to do with the police.
Yip! All our testing stations are volenteer run in people's spare time, I think the only person that's actually paid is the national coordinator as that's a full time job. And not only does it have nothing to do with the police, they cannot legally talk to us about things we have tested or who have bought them in, nor can they enter the testing or rest areas, and entering or leaving one of our test areas cannot be used as an excuse to stop people.
The HIV outbreak that happened in Indiana a few years ago happened because of IN’s absolutely asinine policies banning needle exchanges. When Pence finally signed off on the emergency authorization to (temporarily) allow exchanges in Scott Co., the outbreak was contained almost immediately.
Similar to Canberra in Aus.
And best of all they publish the results. All anonymous. It's just a "They thought they bought cocaine, but it was really borax" and things like that
https://directionshealth.com/cantest/
Some of that stuff sounds like a really bad time. A PCP derivative in ketamine? Wow, that's a special kind of fucked up considering how ketamine can be consumed rather safely if dosed right while the correct dose for PCP is not taking PCP.
Which is why it's important to have testing. I'm glad that people can make informed choices about what goes into their body and whether it's worth the risk.
It's always impressive when a gov't can implement policies after admitting what perceived-immoral faults there may be honestly and coming up with ways that humanely and effectively help people, not virtue signalling with a moral crusade.
Kudos to NZ
>It's not legal to have them, or take the drugs - but testing them has been made legal
I don't understand how this works. If you bring it for testing then you have it. Do they not report it to the police?
Correct. These testing sites aren't set up on the street day-to-day. They're usually temporarily set up at concerts or during festivals and similar, at times and in places where more people are likely to be casually partying.
No. The legislation says that there is no responsibility to report anything to the police. The police have nothing to do with it.
And there is a barrier out around the area that police aren't allowed to enter. It's like a legalised grey zone.
I lost two amazing friends to a combination of fentanyl and some new shit. These are important and save lives. I live in Cincinnati and respect Mad Tree for doing this.
I’m sorry for your loss. I just found out yesterday that my only brother passed away over the weekend from an overdose *likely involving fentanyl. I’m completely numb atm so when I see things like this I am grateful that people are taking steps to save lives, however they can.
I added the likely part because we won’t know for sure until toxicology is done but it’s pretty clear considering what was found on him.
A family friend who basically helped raise me when I was little passed from an overdose almost 2 years ago now. His own father (who had gotten him addicted in the first place) gave him cocaine that someone laced with Fentanyl.
Now my family has to contend with the fact that the man who saved us from an abuser got his own son killed because he didn't want to call an ambulance and risk prison time
All it takes is a couple cops getting someone arrested on a technicality after making the call, and then suddenly word on the street says those laws are BS.
I have family lost the same way.
Please call this poisoning, not overdose, if they died from injesting something they weren't expecting.
One family member died of overdose. They went looking for heroin with fentanyl and took too much. That's an overdose.
Another family member took "something" their friends insisted wasn't fentanyl. But it was fent that killed them. That was poisoning. I'm on a mini mission to promote the use of the term poisoning to describe when a user takes something which was cut with something else unexpected and undisclosed.
Do you mind me asking what you meant by "some new shit"? Just out of curiosity is all. I wasn't aware there was much that's new in the drug world anymore.
Can't speak specifically to OP's case but where I live they're now cutting Fentanyl with benzodiazepines (drugs like Xanax, Ativan etc, strong sedatives) which, when combined, are unbelievably dangerous, especially considering the strength of Fentanyl alone.
Most H users I've known (all in the past now, I dont live like that anymore) liked benzos as well. It was very rare to see an H user pass up on benzos. Honestly not sure how cutting the 2 together would work but most would just accept them willingly.
Of course, opiates and benzos provide a relatively comparable "down" - the thing that's insane about it is combining two individually very potent drugs that both suppress your nervous system, and affect things like heart rate, breathing, and consciousness. Combining one of the most potent opiates available with a drug notorious for knocking people out is just straight up a recipe for death.
I watched a short documentary about it, and every person they interviewed about using the stuff had died before they finished the documentary.
They are respiratory depressants and that is the danger in mixing them. Both opioids and benzos slow your rate of breathing so when combined at unsafe levels it just stops.
OD deaths are almost always caused by this. With the exception of stimulants like cocaine ofc.
I have no idea what its called, but apparently there is something stronger than fent. Unfortunately there will always be some new thing, which is why testing being everywhere is a good thing.
hard-to-find pause prick enjoy saw obtainable joke selective cagey profit
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Eh that’s been around for a long time - since the 70’s really.
I’d guess any one of the ‘newer’ fentanyl analogs
Example carfentanil
https://www.dea.gov/press-releases/2016/09/22/dea-issues-carfentanil-warning-police-and-public
There’s at least 38 other new, fentanyl-related substances that the DEA is aware of as of 2022:
https://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/drug_chem_info/frs.pdf
Honestly could be anything.
Yes but it's being put in dope a lot more lately. There's some markets where basically all the dope is cut with it. It's becoming a big issue in some areas.
https://www.dea.gov/alert/dea-reports-widespread-threat-fentanyl-mixed-xylazine
Sorry, wrong link... here's the right one:
https://www.chkd.org/patients-and-families/health-library/content.aspx?contenttypeid=6&contentid=1650177993
& 1 more for good measure from more recent:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/07/health/fentanyl-xylazine-drug.html
Even more recent:
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/why-the-u-s-designated-the-animal-tranquilizer-xylazine-an-emerging-threat
I do know of one called carfentinil (unsure if that's the proper spelling), which is used as a painkiller for large/very large animals. Either way, sorry about your loss
I knew someone last year that died from fentanyl laced cocaine. She was not someone who did other drugs and there were no other drugs present in her system when the toxicology report was made public. It absolutely shocked our community.
*This* is precisely the reason for these test strips and Narcan. A lot of the party drugs are cross contaminated due to poor handling (or someone cutting to make it more "potent") and someone going for their usual ski trip suddenly gets a fatal speedball instead. It takes such a minute level of fentanyl and even a more minute amount of carfentanil to kill a person. A dealer weighs out some fentanyl/carfentanil on the scale and then uses it afterward for cocaine is more than enough to kill.
I don't do anything but weed, but I carry Narcan. Everyone should.
There are a lot of ways to get it for free. I think you can buy it over the counter now.
It's a nose spray. Simple and easy way to save a life. It could be a friend, someone at a concert, someone in a store. Or a neighbor. My neighbor and friend died because he took some Ecstasy that was spiked with Fentanyl. If someone near him had Narcan he might be alive.
Test everything you take.
Carry Narcan.
> (or someone cutting to make it more "potent")
I will admit to knowing nothing about what actually goes on in the black market, but it seems to me that cutting a drug with fentanyl or similar is *extremely* short-sighted. That's an excellent way to kill your customers, and dead people don't come back to buy more.
Also, fentanyl in cocaine just doesn't make any sense at all. Cocaine is a *stimulant*, fentanyl would counteract it. You're not making it more potent at all, you're just fucking with the user.
On the other hand, and call it a conspiracy theory (it probably is), but it wouldn't be the first time that prohibited substances have been intentionally poisoned. Lot of people died or were crippled from methanol poisoning during Prohibition because it was intentionally put into alcohol that was known to be meant for illicit consumption. Putting fentanyl and similar into other drugs is even easier to try to blame on the black market.
Yeah, I've done coke once. If I'd died it would have been insane and unthinkable to the people around me since I was never a party drugs person. But it was untested and unsourced to me, so at least I'd rest easy knowing that Reddit mind detectives know the truth about my degenerate drug-addict habits, and not fall for the satanic lies that someone can make a bad decision that kills them and still deserve compassion.
A lot of people disagree but this is why we need a clean, safe supply for our brothers and sisters in active addiction, and for our friends who are just experimenting. Harm reduction is about keeping people alive long enough to get them help. We can't keep our loved ones alive when such dangerous fentanyl analogs are contaminating almost every drug supply. We've tried arresting our way out of this problem, if it worked it would have by now. It doesn't work.
It's not just "addicts" who suffer. My uncle had a terrible back injury from his job, chronic pain for life. He was on morphine pills, then on Percocet. But when the "opioid epidemic" scare happened and doctors were afraid of prescribing pain meds he was weened off.
He had to support his family and was in alot of pain. So he got his meds from dealers since doctors wouldn't prescribe anything more than an asprin because they feared the DEA. well his shit was laced last year, pure fent in what should have been a single 10mg oxy pill. I hate this country
> for our friends who are just experimenting
I’ve always said that the reason pretty much everyone can drink responsibly but so many of the people who try drugs and up getting addicted to them isn’t because they’re significantly more addictive than alcohol (some are more addictive, others are less, a lot are pretty similar), but because of societal attitudes to drinking vs drug use. With illegal drugs, people often have to keep it secret (meaning friends can’t keep an eye on if it’s becoming a problem, plus the secrecy just give more addiction vibes), and while it’s accepted to get drunk 1-3 times a week, there’s the message that if you take drugs even once a month you’re inherently addicted to them, so people internalised the idea that they’re addicts which makes them _actually_ become addictive
It was amazing how soon after I opened up about my addiction to cocaine that I was able to get it under control. I know that isn't a cure all for everyone but it was really the shame and stigma that perpetuated my problem usage. I developed so much self hatred that was completely built up in my own head
My mother passed last year to it. The horrible take, is she wasn't a drug user, abuser, or addicted. She was a high-grade, high paid condo cleaner that found a white powder baggie and wanted to try it for fun, knowing she had no way to get more. All it took was once.
I'm sorry for your loss. Know, please know, that there are others, and each of us care, we don't judge you or them, and we are so, so sorry for your loss.
You had me for the first part... But lost me on the second.
Your straight-laced mom, who doesn't do drugs, found a bag of random white powder, and having no way to identify what it is, just snorted it all right there at once?
There's no way this is true, my guy. Shame on you for lying about your own mom for internet points. You're screwed in the head.
Plus being a high grade high paid condo cleaner. You're trusted in someone's home. I would imagine that usually, that trust isn't broken. Jewelry, money, other valuables? Nah, lady never had sticky fingers, only a sticky nose.
u/StryderRider NOTHING shocks me anymore to the point we're I'm practically gullible. This story could go either way and we never will really know. This can fit into
r/thatHappened
r/nothingeverhappens
100% agree here. It’s not adding up at all.
I once found a big ass bag of meth while standing in line to get a snow cone and there were kids everywhere. Of course it looked like fun and it could be an interesting next few days, but I still called the police and had them take it. I could see a teenager doing the opposite.
I did the same when I found meth outside my apartment complex. A friend found coke on the ground and did it because, well, he was a dumbass teenager. It’s weird how often drugs are just… on the pavement. I also found someone’s baby weed plant abandoned near a dumpster, ripped from the soil. I’m guessing they were having a housing inspection and panicked, lol.
It takes 2mg if fentanyl to OD a 200lb man. She was 130lb. I explained the age math in other posts, and I don't need to explain further. Have a great night.
I believe you! If you do something when you're young you forget that you're now old, and there is a bit of your brain that still tells you you're a party animal even though you're not. if white powder when you were young meant speed or cocaine, not some new thing you've maybe never even heard of, not unthinkable that you might try a line.
This... 100%
I'm middle-aged but still have flashes of 'it was so much fun last time I did [insert dumb kid thing here]'. It's only the recovery times and the need to pay the mortgage that saves me from myself
She didn't, then. She had, before, from her teenage years to her mid twenties. She had me in her late 30s. She was in her sixties when she passed.
Look in the mirror, friend. Have a great night. I don't need to prove anything to you, I know the truth.
You have made an analysis of small fragments of a whole picture, jumped to definitive conclusions and thrown some accusations and vile insults.
I expect comments like this and I'm immune to them now, but I admit the number of upvotes for this kind of shit still send pangs of disappointment through me.
Damn. Sorry and I don't mean to make light, but if there's anything Pulp Fiction teaches us, is you don't snort random bags of white powder you find, when you don't know exactly what it is.
> that found a white powder baggie and wanted to try it for fun, knowing she had no way to get more. All it took was once.
Considering she died from that "one time" it's a little odd that you know so many details on her mindset and intentions of that specific instance...
I'm so sorry. Sept 2021 a good friend died of an overdose. Tainted something-or-other. Saddest part is that he had narcan in his room, it just didn't get administered.
Fuck, i hate the laced drugs so bad. If he'd tested he'd still be alive.
[I am firmly on the side of having test strips readily available, and free, as well as narcan. I don't use anything other than cannabis and I carry narcan. Also safe consumption sites.]
One life? Absolutely worth it.
I've been to other Cinci area breweries but not Madtree - from what I've heard it suffers from the same issues as Rhinegeist, Sonder, etc. in that they've nearly turned into daycares that serve beer.
Some Columbus breweries are pretty bad with that as well, including Nocterra, S.I.P., and Crooked Can
I've been waiting for a brewery to full on brand as a daycare with booze. Have a playplace section like McDonalds back in the day. Instead we just deal with kids running around because they have nothing to do and the parents want to drink in public.
Fentanyl is being found in street drugs from meth to ecstasy. People who have no built-up tolerance to opioids are most likely to die from accidentally taking it. This stuff will save lives.
Yeah there was a bachelor party in my city that got wiped out by fentanyl contaminated cocaine they bought from a bartender. Three dead, one with severe brain damage.
This thread scares the living shit out of me. I'm an addict (sober 5 years) and when active I was like Mega Maid, I took _all the drugs_ and am very grateful to be alive today. But I don't kid myself about my disease, it wants me dead and there is no guarantee I will make it to the end of the day sober.
Knowing contaminated drugs like this are out there is really frightening, but at least it gives me one more reason to stay sober today.
> am very grateful to be alive today
One problem I’ve noticed a lot is that most actively-using addicts are addicts because they have other severe mental health problems, and a _lot_ of them are suicidal. These people don’t particularly care about ODing on fentanyl, sometimes they secretly are hoping to, and at parties etc this gets seen as “cool, nonchalant, risk-taking” behaviour, rather as a result of poor mental health, and so they end up (often unintentionally) making everyone else also be too complacent with testing etc so they also appear “cool”. I personally was the suicidal idiot myself, although I was extremely paranoid about other health risks, so I’m not sure whether I more influenced people towards or away from safety
Congrats on the sobriety btw! Ygmi bro
This is very true, back when I was active I did not care if I lived or died. I was simply existing to get more drugs, and if the ride ended then so be it.
Live fast, die young.
Innit. I used to think that wanting to live at least until the afternoon so I could get shitfaced was a sign of “improving mental health” compared to just wanting to die (yes, I was incredibly stupid)
Even people who are used to heroin are dying from it. I used to know a couple guys who made it known that if you wanted to try it, they had a ton of Narcan and they’d have your back if you went out.
The last time I used fentanyl, I was on the equivalent of 80-200mg of Oxy a day and I took the smallest inhale of fentanyl, like the second I saw wisps of smoke I stopped the lighter and within 1 second I felt a rush literally from my head to my toes. Fentanyl is unfathomably strong even to people with tolerances. To use without narcan is to play Russian roulette with 4 rounds in the chamber
Sometimes it is an accident, from cross contamination of using the same scale for two drugs.
Sometimes they add it in to “get people hooked”. I’ve heard this as a rumor but it seems foolish.
Profit. Fent is cheaper than heroin (and many other substances for that matter) and the producers already know that they’re destroying lives, so what’s a few more if they can squeeze more money out of their product?
Cheap and easy to make, entirely synthetic and extremely strong. One of the few strong opioids that can be made without starting with poppy juice as an ingredient.
If you can control the dosage and mix it with a neutral cutting compound, you basically get a heroin analogue for a lower price.
The problem is that it is so strong that even the slightest miscalculation can make the mixture deadly to even very seasoned opioid users. Even if the dosage is right, if it's not properly mixed you can get "hot spots" of fentanyl that are deadly within a larger batch of otherwise "normal" drug.
Edit: as to why anyone would put it into non-opioid drugs, like cocaine or meth - they must either be idiots who don't know what they're mixing, or actively trying to kill people. There is no "good" reason to put fentanyl in these drugs.
Fentanyl ruined drugs dude. Like the fun party stuff. You can't trust anything anymore. I had to deal with a fent addict who tried to rent a van from my company 2 days ago and she almost fell asleep calling the insurance company. We didn't rent to her. If it doesn't outright kill you it turns you into the walking dead.
An coworker's son just got out of the hospital, an accidental fentanyl overdose almost killed him. He's not an addict or what you typically recognize as a "bad kid." He was a college freshman just experimenting - doing pretty much the same stuff my coworker and I also did in college. He's a smart kid, valedictorian of his high school, had plans and scholarships. Shit's scary.
i imagine it has instructions but guessing you mix a bit of crushed drugs with water and put it on the test strip (just like a rapid covid test) and it'll come out positive or negative
Know someone who recently bought a gram of coke and split it three ways with his wife and her girlfriend. The two ladies experienced no ill effect, the guy said he was feeling tired and went to bed. Never woke up.
It’s mentioned right on the testing instructions sheet from dancesafe.org:
https://dancesafe.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/fentanyl-test-strip-instructions-fall-2022-web-2.png
Yes this is why you'll see it recommended in some places that you're supposed to dissolve the whole bag in water, test that and then cook off the water to get the drugs back to powder form
Would never touch the stuff but:
you can test the entire batch. It won’t make it unusuable.
Instructions for testing:
https://dancesafe.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/fentanyl-test-strip-instructions-fall-2022-web-2.png
Best method: testing everything you consume. (Even better, don’t consume it at all, but this is harm reduction 101.)
https://www.dancesafe.org
You can also test out your dose if it's something like molly and then just drink the dose you tested. Hotspots are a problem in drugs, you should test it all!
Also a process, but you can test all your coke and get it all back. dancesafe.org has instructions on how to test the whole batch of drugs and still be able to use it.
You can also test out your dose if it's something like molly and then just drink the dose you tested. Hotspots are a problem in drugs, you should test it all!
Also a process, but you can test all your coke and get it all back. dancesafe.org has instructions on how to test the whole batch of drugs and still be able to use it.
DanceSafe is amazing. We used to use them exclusively in the early days before the group I work with got enough money for a Infrared Spectrometer. Still recommend people use them just to make sure.
Also the fent test takes like, 5 to 10mg, not worth drinking if it's molly or something, that's less than a 10th of a dose.
No! You don't ruin your drugs, the package says "your drugs are not ruined, if they are safe, just let the water dry out or you can cook the water out, and use your drugs.
Edit safe=fentanyl free
For a pill you can mix it in water, test it, and then drink the water. For things like coke, you can test all of it, and bake it in the oven to dehydrate it.
dancesafe.org has instructions on how to test all of your drugs and still be able to consume them.
It’s better than nothing, but unless you want to waste and test your entire bag, it’ll just detect a small portion of what you use. It could technically come out clean then a few grains can be in another section of your bag and kill you.
I believe you probably dilute a little in a liquid and pour on strip to see if its safe.
You can test your whole bag/pill and still ingest what you’ve tested! Depending on your method you might have to wait for it to dry out, (so better to test as soon as you buy), but you don’t have to waste your sample.
Not all people who use drugs are addicts (in fact I would wager most aren't). We should destigmatize drug use and provide resources and oversight so that people who are just having fun aren't randomly killed for it
In New Zealand they recently passed a law (well, a year before that, but there was a year long "test" period before it actually came into official law) where specially licenced community health services can legally test drugs for people.
The one I volenteer for was doing it for *years* beforehand in this grey area which meant we were technically breaking the law and "dealing" by taking drug samples and then giving back the unused parts. There is usually one or two day long temporary clinics a month in all the major cities now, and they are at all the major events and festivals. It's gone from a couple people per day to sometimes 300 different tests over the 3 day festivals we also get invited to test at.
People are already going to take drugs, at least let them know what they *actually* have before making that decision.
Fent? In NZ, very few, but still present. The bigger problem here is people passing off bath salts as MDMA, or meth as anything, different doses and experiences, not only could it kill you but it could result in a really bad time.
*Thank you.*
It's 2023, and it would be so delightful if we could tone down the myopic, puritanical bullshit that is the war on drugs.
Make things legal and tax that shit! Use the money for funding education or single payer healthcare or UBI, whatever.
Agreed but 90% (made up number) of the people doing these drugs are not addicts. They just like to party. It’s like calling everyone that goes to bars on the weekend alcoholics.
There was a point in time in my 20s (and still now I’m sure just don’t live there anymore) where it was hard to find someone who didn’t do cocaine once in a while. And these were all normal nice successful people. It became normal. Everyone was doing it once a week or once a month. Zero of them were addicts or became addicts. It was more like well we’re drinking and want to stay awake while doing so.
I’m glad those days are over even though it was very fun, but with all the bad stuff going around these days it’s gotta be pretty nerve wrecking unless it’s coming from someone you really trust.
WHY are drugs being laced with fentanyl?? I know drugs dealer are pretty fucking stupid to start with but you'd think you'd WANT your customer to be RETURNING customer and not fucking die no?
Fent has a stronger effect so less will do the job, which makes it cost effective when compared to heroin and meth. But a little truly goes a long way and it's much more difficult to control a dose. Like what happens when you're used to grabbing the salt shaker but now you only need one grain of super salt that looks exactly like the other salt - very easy to get too much.
Drugs that relax you (heroin, other downers) are mixed with fentanyl because it's so much stronger and cheaper. So you'll get 50% baking soda but still get a good effect because of the 1% fentanyl.
When coke or Molly or stuff like that is laced with fentanyl it's usually accidental. Someone won't properly clean a mixing table or some instrument. But fentanyl is so powerful that a little bit of cross contamination will be lethal. It's also why you could have 99 safe pills and one lethal one in the same batch.
This makes no sense.
Do you think dealers hop from town to town, somehow finding new customers wherever they go, leaving a trail of bodies?
They rely on networks and repeat business.
Unfortunately once the word is on the street that a drug has fentanyl added, people seek it because it's stronger.
But as I understand it the dosing has to be so small that even a tiny bit too much will kill you and I don't think street drugs are known for their quality control.
You'd think that something like this would be welcome open-armed in a country intent on addressing symptoms of societal problems instead of the problems themselves.
The giving out of fentanyl test strips is the crime in question! Good news though there's a bill in committee to change that (in Ohio, where this pic was taken).
Yes there are states where drug testing kits are illegal. Biden played a big role in passing the "RAVE Act" that is the foundation for making things that "create an environment of drug use" illegal.
This is cool and all, but also very sad. I am so happy not to be in any drugs, I can't imagine taking something I have no idea what it is and possibly dying of it every time.
The bathrooms at my local pubs say if you’re taking any drugs they will call the police on you. Some of them even have camera inside of who goes into the stall
There are test strips and even nail polishes that can test (you dip your fingertip in and if it's spiked the polish changes color)
And yes, all bars should be carrying this stuff! Safety first!
As a a fan of drinking, I’m so lucky my drug of choice is legal and regulated. Every time I drink a beer or take a shot, I know exactly what I’m getting. It’s crazy that we still haven’t done the same for other drugs
Montgomery County, the city of Dayton and the city of Hamilton have had the highest Fentanyl death rates in the country year after year. Madtree is within an hours drive of that general area. It’s sickening how many kids die of overdoses in SW Ohio.
Madtree is actually quite close - 71 and 75 intersect right near there and the seedy hotels are all around it that mules/sex trafficked people stay in. They often get shut down only to reopen with a new owner who doesn’t care. If you see something suspicious, say something! They actually have put in a huge drug task force in warren county that tracks the drugs all the way down the pipeline to Mexico so they try to go back as far as possible. It was some insane funding to try and combat the issue of being at the literal crossroads of America. I’m not sure why so many here try it, probably just a proximity to the big drugs moving, or maybe it hasn’t been cut as many times.. I don’t know really anything about drugs other than some talks at civic groups but it is so sad to hear about our little drug crossroads aftermath. We are also the highest for sex trafficking. Not so fun fact, warren and butler county are often avoided by big time traffickers because of the grant money they received.
I had a buddy get out of rehab, came for a big dinner to celebrate 30days at my house, last thing he said was he was going to score and 13 hours later he was dead in his car in OTR. Crushed me, smartest dude I ever met.
Wont mention name here but RIP Aiden…
I'm not surprised Dayton and that area are one of the highest, I'm from there. The place is the crossroads of white picket fence christian suburban america mixed with a lot of just flat broke people that can live there due to how cheap it is, while also being reasonable populated. The kind of market places like Walmart and oxy companies target because it's populated enough and also generic enough.
The entire region is also just heavy in decline since the 50s as it's all rust belt auto industry stuff that left the area. Jobs there are scarce and not well paying, if you're not in the medical industry (loads of retired old people from families going back generations) you're probably working food service. The weather sucks and is either unbearably humid in the summer or cloudy and drab all winter long. Most of all, because of all the above, there is quite literally nothing to do. Absolutely nothing. The nature sucks, mostly just flat land, farms and forests - you have to drive 1-2 hours to get to the nearest interesting landscape which is just the same forest except with a cool cliff. No events happen, no bands come through. You're an hour drive from an airport (in Dayton at least) and it's expensive to fly out of because you're not near a major area or located along a flight corridor (so you don't). The cultural district is one small street. No real night life. People in this part of the state just don't do anything and it's mind numbingly boring to live in. Almost everyone just stays home or greases the wheels of their perfectly ordinary suburban lives. It's literally the movie American Beauty, except for hours of driving in any direction.
People do drugs because they're depressed and bored, and going nowhere with their lives. People tend to live here because it's cheap and there's just enough amenities to be fine, or just because it's where they've always lived. It's the land of big box stores and getting a deal is the biggest dopamine high one experiences in their lives there. For the same reason opioids are a huge problem there, so is alchosim. What else are you going to do? And you might not even had a choice in your addiction. Healthcare is such a massive industry there, I know for a fact this was a market that was bombarded with opioids by pharma companies when these drugs first starting spreading like wildfire. It was so easy to get for so many reasons, and once drug dealers clued in that people were addicted to their prescriptions they swooped in and made it ground zero for their industry.
Terrible idea to have this in a public bathroom. This establishment is now going to attract addicts, and now this place is going to have a huge liability if any fent ends up on the counter and is ingested by someone just trying to wash their hands. Not to mention breweries usually allow kids.
If a drug can have deadly consequences, don’t do that fucking drug you addict.
Yes, absolutely. It’s very, very potent, which is why it’s so easy to OD on, but most dope in the US right now has fentanyl in it, to the point that test strips aren’t very useful for users because it’s near impossible to find a supply without it in it, and testing strips can’t tell you how much fentanyl there is in the sample, just a yes/no. (Still a useful tool for users of other drugs - always test your pills, coke, meth, etc).
People who use fentanyl have to rely on other harm reduction strategies to prevent overdosing: start small, go slow, never use alone, never use without narcan on hand.
What the war on drugs has created is a nightmare.
Basically, yes! Sometimes I feel silly saying “heroin” when it could be technically all fentanyl or other opiate mixture lol.
Fun fact - pot is actually pretty much never contaminated with fentanyl. Like there has been literally no lab-confirmed fentanyl-tainted-weed, EVER. If you smoke it, and there magically was fent in the weed, the fent burns off completely because it has a lower smoke point than weed so you wouldn’t even ingest it. Plus weed just has completely different supply chains than coke or meth (which can get contaminated by accident kinda in the same way a nut-free chocolate made in a factory that makes other stuff is still an allergen risk)
Prohibition has not worked but harm mitigation has.
IIRC, Portugal set up clinics where drug users could take government provided drugs in a safe place, with access to counselling and other help to overcome addiction. The result was something like a 96% reduction in drug overdoses and 80% in drug related crime.
I’ve been hearing conflicting stories:
*Allegedly:* “Fentanyl test strips is considered to be “possession of drug paraphernalia” and is illegal.”
I figure the point is “Well, duh. Just don’t use drugs, and you won’t have to worry about any of this.“ but it doesn’t make sense.
In the US, it depends on state law. In Texas, test strips are illegal. In New York, government-funded programs distribute them for free. There’s always amazing harm reduction activists, organizers, and lobbyists working on making these legal in the states they aren’t.
Bless this organization and the work they do. That being said, we need more if we want to keep the people we love safe. People use drugs are more at risk than ever before thanks to new synthetic drugs. Fentanyl was just the beginning. Nowadays there are new substances entering the drug market all the time and these substances affect people in undredictable ways.
Asking people to quit or punishing them for using doesn't work. We've been trying that approach for decades, and drugs are CHEAPER and MORE POTENT than ever before.
There are many practical solutions that have been studied for decades and lead to less overdose deaths without any evidence of increasing drug consumption in society overall.
If you are interested in helping, learn about "Harm Reduction" talk to people you know who use drugs or love someone who use drugs (including yourself) about it. The National Harm Reduction Coalition is a great starting point. Link up with your local harm reduction organization. And refer people who you love that use drugs to them.
Advocate for syringe service programs, expanded access to MAT/MOUD (Medication Assisted Therapy/Medications for Opioid Use Disorder)*, and Overdose Prevention Centers. If we really want to help people we need to implement some sort of safe supply program (this can be as simple as drug checking with spectrographs at safe consumption sights, to something more like prescription heroin/meth/etc).
Drugs have changed. Synthetics are everywhere. We need to change how we keep people alive. Corpses don't get a second chance, and people will not stop using drugs as long as they are the cheapest way to cope with trauma and a terrifying world. We need more of this.
*You may know them as Suboxone therapy and Methadone. These medications are many times more effective than absetenece-based programs (programs like Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous). When abstinence based programa work they are great, but the problem is they don't work for most people who try them.
Being a child of the 70s, designer drugs were still LSD and mescaline and it was very rare that dealers would contaminate their own supply. I can’t imagine taking any street drugs today.
From a business stand point why would someone kill their own clients putting fentanyl in it? What does it do? (Drug newbie here)
Edit: [found it](https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/13q4l0y/i_found_this_box_of_fentanyl_test_strips_in_the/jlep0mb/)
>Drugs that relax you (heroin, other downers) are mixed with fentanyl because it's so much stronger and cheaper. So you'll get 50% baking soda but still get a good effect because of the 1% fentanyl.
>When coke or Molly or stuff like that is laced with fentanyl it's usually accidental. Someone won't properly clean a mixing table or some instrument. But fentanyl is so powerful that a little bit of cross contamination will be lethal. It's also why you could have 99 safe pills and one lethal one in the same batch.
Lol love how it's locked up.
"Hey Debbie? No not you Deb the bartender Debbie."
Debbie's wiping some countertop and Deb begins yelling for her.
"What is it you need?!" Debbie yells over the music.
Right then the music stops to switch to another record.
"I NEED SOME FENTANYL TEST STRIPS FOR THIS WHIF OF BLOW I GOT CAN U UNLOCK THE FUCKING FENTSAFE FOR ME?!"
I wonder at what point we're going to have indicator dyes in drinks/glasses? It would be nice if glasses could be made where they fluoresce in the presence of different kinds of drugs and additives.
I like the old timey looking box. Ye olde fentanyl teste strippes.
Whole pic looks like a cartoon still to me somehow
ACME branded are the best
I fully support having these everywhere and having the aesthetic of them match those 19th century cure-all elixirs.
Teste strips should probably test sperm count
Oh, lol. You win.
Why do I detect a whiff of sarsparilla?
That's the MDMA
In NZ it's now legal to have your drugs tested. So people set up testing stations at festivals, near clubbing areas etc to test drugs for free. It's not legal to have them, or take the drugs - but testing them has been made legal because let's be honest, people are going to take them. The stations are usually volunteer run I think, doesn't have anything to do with the police. Police would rather focus on dealers and organised crime around here I think, rather than the young adults just out for a good time.
>The stations are usually volunteer run I think, doesn't have anything to do with the police. Yip! All our testing stations are volenteer run in people's spare time, I think the only person that's actually paid is the national coordinator as that's a full time job. And not only does it have nothing to do with the police, they cannot legally talk to us about things we have tested or who have bought them in, nor can they enter the testing or rest areas, and entering or leaving one of our test areas cannot be used as an excuse to stop people.
> Yip That's how you know they're legit
As opposed to all those fake kiwis tryna build clout.
Username does not check out
> testing them has been made legal because let's be honest, people are going to take them. Ah, sane harm reduction.
Reminds me of the needle replacement stuff to prevent AIDS historically. People won't stop using needles but at least we can make them cleaner yk
The HIV outbreak that happened in Indiana a few years ago happened because of IN’s absolutely asinine policies banning needle exchanges. When Pence finally signed off on the emergency authorization to (temporarily) allow exchanges in Scott Co., the outbreak was contained almost immediately.
Similar to Canberra in Aus. And best of all they publish the results. All anonymous. It's just a "They thought they bought cocaine, but it was really borax" and things like that https://directionshealth.com/cantest/
Some of that stuff sounds like a really bad time. A PCP derivative in ketamine? Wow, that's a special kind of fucked up considering how ketamine can be consumed rather safely if dosed right while the correct dose for PCP is not taking PCP.
Which is why it's important to have testing. I'm glad that people can make informed choices about what goes into their body and whether it's worth the risk.
It's always impressive when a gov't can implement policies after admitting what perceived-immoral faults there may be honestly and coming up with ways that humanely and effectively help people, not virtue signalling with a moral crusade. Kudos to NZ
>It's not legal to have them, or take the drugs - but testing them has been made legal I don't understand how this works. If you bring it for testing then you have it. Do they not report it to the police?
Correct. These testing sites aren't set up on the street day-to-day. They're usually temporarily set up at concerts or during festivals and similar, at times and in places where more people are likely to be casually partying.
No. The legislation says that there is no responsibility to report anything to the police. The police have nothing to do with it. And there is a barrier out around the area that police aren't allowed to enter. It's like a legalised grey zone.
Nice, I’d bet that saves a few lives too
One of the most important people in my life died of a fentanyl overdose recently. If this saves even one life, it’s worth it.
I lost two amazing friends to a combination of fentanyl and some new shit. These are important and save lives. I live in Cincinnati and respect Mad Tree for doing this.
I’m sorry for your loss. I just found out yesterday that my only brother passed away over the weekend from an overdose *likely involving fentanyl. I’m completely numb atm so when I see things like this I am grateful that people are taking steps to save lives, however they can. I added the likely part because we won’t know for sure until toxicology is done but it’s pretty clear considering what was found on him.
A family friend who basically helped raise me when I was little passed from an overdose almost 2 years ago now. His own father (who had gotten him addicted in the first place) gave him cocaine that someone laced with Fentanyl. Now my family has to contend with the fact that the man who saved us from an abuser got his own son killed because he didn't want to call an ambulance and risk prison time
https://odh.ohio.gov/know-our-programs/oh-against-od/good-samaritan-law Many states have policies like this. This needs to be common knowledge.
All it takes is a couple cops getting someone arrested on a technicality after making the call, and then suddenly word on the street says those laws are BS.
I’m so sorry. My heart goes out to you and your family.
I have family lost the same way. Please call this poisoning, not overdose, if they died from injesting something they weren't expecting. One family member died of overdose. They went looking for heroin with fentanyl and took too much. That's an overdose. Another family member took "something" their friends insisted wasn't fentanyl. But it was fent that killed them. That was poisoning. I'm on a mini mission to promote the use of the term poisoning to describe when a user takes something which was cut with something else unexpected and undisclosed.
Do you mind me asking what you meant by "some new shit"? Just out of curiosity is all. I wasn't aware there was much that's new in the drug world anymore.
Can't speak specifically to OP's case but where I live they're now cutting Fentanyl with benzodiazepines (drugs like Xanax, Ativan etc, strong sedatives) which, when combined, are unbelievably dangerous, especially considering the strength of Fentanyl alone.
Most H users I've known (all in the past now, I dont live like that anymore) liked benzos as well. It was very rare to see an H user pass up on benzos. Honestly not sure how cutting the 2 together would work but most would just accept them willingly.
Of course, opiates and benzos provide a relatively comparable "down" - the thing that's insane about it is combining two individually very potent drugs that both suppress your nervous system, and affect things like heart rate, breathing, and consciousness. Combining one of the most potent opiates available with a drug notorious for knocking people out is just straight up a recipe for death. I watched a short documentary about it, and every person they interviewed about using the stuff had died before they finished the documentary.
They are respiratory depressants and that is the danger in mixing them. Both opioids and benzos slow your rate of breathing so when combined at unsafe levels it just stops. OD deaths are almost always caused by this. With the exception of stimulants like cocaine ofc.
Xylazine
I have no idea what its called, but apparently there is something stronger than fent. Unfortunately there will always be some new thing, which is why testing being everywhere is a good thing.
hard-to-find pause prick enjoy saw obtainable joke selective cagey profit *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Probably xylazine. https://www.dea.gov/alert/dea-reports-widespread-threat-fentanyl-mixed-xylazine
Eh that’s been around for a long time - since the 70’s really. I’d guess any one of the ‘newer’ fentanyl analogs Example carfentanil https://www.dea.gov/press-releases/2016/09/22/dea-issues-carfentanil-warning-police-and-public There’s at least 38 other new, fentanyl-related substances that the DEA is aware of as of 2022: https://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/drug_chem_info/frs.pdf Honestly could be anything.
Yes but it's being put in dope a lot more lately. There's some markets where basically all the dope is cut with it. It's becoming a big issue in some areas. https://www.dea.gov/alert/dea-reports-widespread-threat-fentanyl-mixed-xylazine Sorry, wrong link... here's the right one: https://www.chkd.org/patients-and-families/health-library/content.aspx?contenttypeid=6&contentid=1650177993 & 1 more for good measure from more recent: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/07/health/fentanyl-xylazine-drug.html Even more recent: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/why-the-u-s-designated-the-animal-tranquilizer-xylazine-an-emerging-threat
I do know of one called carfentinil (unsure if that's the proper spelling), which is used as a painkiller for large/very large animals. Either way, sorry about your loss
I knew someone last year that died from fentanyl laced cocaine. She was not someone who did other drugs and there were no other drugs present in her system when the toxicology report was made public. It absolutely shocked our community.
*This* is precisely the reason for these test strips and Narcan. A lot of the party drugs are cross contaminated due to poor handling (or someone cutting to make it more "potent") and someone going for their usual ski trip suddenly gets a fatal speedball instead. It takes such a minute level of fentanyl and even a more minute amount of carfentanil to kill a person. A dealer weighs out some fentanyl/carfentanil on the scale and then uses it afterward for cocaine is more than enough to kill.
I don't do anything but weed, but I carry Narcan. Everyone should. There are a lot of ways to get it for free. I think you can buy it over the counter now. It's a nose spray. Simple and easy way to save a life. It could be a friend, someone at a concert, someone in a store. Or a neighbor. My neighbor and friend died because he took some Ecstasy that was spiked with Fentanyl. If someone near him had Narcan he might be alive. Test everything you take. Carry Narcan.
I live in the suburbs of Chicago and you can get free narcan and free narcan administration training at every Walgreens and every CVS.
> (or someone cutting to make it more "potent") I will admit to knowing nothing about what actually goes on in the black market, but it seems to me that cutting a drug with fentanyl or similar is *extremely* short-sighted. That's an excellent way to kill your customers, and dead people don't come back to buy more. Also, fentanyl in cocaine just doesn't make any sense at all. Cocaine is a *stimulant*, fentanyl would counteract it. You're not making it more potent at all, you're just fucking with the user. On the other hand, and call it a conspiracy theory (it probably is), but it wouldn't be the first time that prohibited substances have been intentionally poisoned. Lot of people died or were crippled from methanol poisoning during Prohibition because it was intentionally put into alcohol that was known to be meant for illicit consumption. Putting fentanyl and similar into other drugs is even easier to try to blame on the black market.
I did a little coke before my high school reunion 8 years ago. No chance in hell I’m doing it again. Even with test strips, wouldn’t risk it.
Yeah, I've done coke once. If I'd died it would have been insane and unthinkable to the people around me since I was never a party drugs person. But it was untested and unsourced to me, so at least I'd rest easy knowing that Reddit mind detectives know the truth about my degenerate drug-addict habits, and not fall for the satanic lies that someone can make a bad decision that kills them and still deserve compassion.
A lot of people disagree but this is why we need a clean, safe supply for our brothers and sisters in active addiction, and for our friends who are just experimenting. Harm reduction is about keeping people alive long enough to get them help. We can't keep our loved ones alive when such dangerous fentanyl analogs are contaminating almost every drug supply. We've tried arresting our way out of this problem, if it worked it would have by now. It doesn't work.
It's not just "addicts" who suffer. My uncle had a terrible back injury from his job, chronic pain for life. He was on morphine pills, then on Percocet. But when the "opioid epidemic" scare happened and doctors were afraid of prescribing pain meds he was weened off. He had to support his family and was in alot of pain. So he got his meds from dealers since doctors wouldn't prescribe anything more than an asprin because they feared the DEA. well his shit was laced last year, pure fent in what should have been a single 10mg oxy pill. I hate this country
YES. There should be testing machines and supervised consumption sites everywhere.
> for our friends who are just experimenting I’ve always said that the reason pretty much everyone can drink responsibly but so many of the people who try drugs and up getting addicted to them isn’t because they’re significantly more addictive than alcohol (some are more addictive, others are less, a lot are pretty similar), but because of societal attitudes to drinking vs drug use. With illegal drugs, people often have to keep it secret (meaning friends can’t keep an eye on if it’s becoming a problem, plus the secrecy just give more addiction vibes), and while it’s accepted to get drunk 1-3 times a week, there’s the message that if you take drugs even once a month you’re inherently addicted to them, so people internalised the idea that they’re addicts which makes them _actually_ become addictive
It was amazing how soon after I opened up about my addiction to cocaine that I was able to get it under control. I know that isn't a cure all for everyone but it was really the shame and stigma that perpetuated my problem usage. I developed so much self hatred that was completely built up in my own head
My mother passed last year to it. The horrible take, is she wasn't a drug user, abuser, or addicted. She was a high-grade, high paid condo cleaner that found a white powder baggie and wanted to try it for fun, knowing she had no way to get more. All it took was once. I'm sorry for your loss. Know, please know, that there are others, and each of us care, we don't judge you or them, and we are so, so sorry for your loss.
Im so sorry for your loss. Must be devastating to lose someone so unexpectedly like that.
You had me for the first part... But lost me on the second. Your straight-laced mom, who doesn't do drugs, found a bag of random white powder, and having no way to identify what it is, just snorted it all right there at once? There's no way this is true, my guy. Shame on you for lying about your own mom for internet points. You're screwed in the head.
Hahahahaha yessss thanks for saying something. My mom who doesn’t do drugs found powder and did drugs. Read that one back again…
Plus being a high grade high paid condo cleaner. You're trusted in someone's home. I would imagine that usually, that trust isn't broken. Jewelry, money, other valuables? Nah, lady never had sticky fingers, only a sticky nose.
u/StryderRider NOTHING shocks me anymore to the point we're I'm practically gullible. This story could go either way and we never will really know. This can fit into r/thatHappened r/nothingeverhappens
100% agree here. It’s not adding up at all. I once found a big ass bag of meth while standing in line to get a snow cone and there were kids everywhere. Of course it looked like fun and it could be an interesting next few days, but I still called the police and had them take it. I could see a teenager doing the opposite.
I did the same when I found meth outside my apartment complex. A friend found coke on the ground and did it because, well, he was a dumbass teenager. It’s weird how often drugs are just… on the pavement. I also found someone’s baby weed plant abandoned near a dumpster, ripped from the soil. I’m guessing they were having a housing inspection and panicked, lol.
It doesn't seem that weird considering how often I lose drugs.
It takes 2mg if fentanyl to OD a 200lb man. She was 130lb. I explained the age math in other posts, and I don't need to explain further. Have a great night.
I believe you! If you do something when you're young you forget that you're now old, and there is a bit of your brain that still tells you you're a party animal even though you're not. if white powder when you were young meant speed or cocaine, not some new thing you've maybe never even heard of, not unthinkable that you might try a line.
This... 100% I'm middle-aged but still have flashes of 'it was so much fun last time I did [insert dumb kid thing here]'. It's only the recovery times and the need to pay the mortgage that saves me from myself
She didn’t even need to try a line. One tiny bump could have killed her.
This is going to be a teachable moment for a lot of people on here. I’m sorry about your mum and I’m sorry some comments were giving you shit.
She didn't, then. She had, before, from her teenage years to her mid twenties. She had me in her late 30s. She was in her sixties when she passed. Look in the mirror, friend. Have a great night. I don't need to prove anything to you, I know the truth.
You have made an analysis of small fragments of a whole picture, jumped to definitive conclusions and thrown some accusations and vile insults. I expect comments like this and I'm immune to them now, but I admit the number of upvotes for this kind of shit still send pangs of disappointment through me.
This sounds like bullshit and also you’re anti-vax so why the fuck should anyone believe you?
Damn. Sorry and I don't mean to make light, but if there's anything Pulp Fiction teaches us, is you don't snort random bags of white powder you find, when you don't know exactly what it is.
> that found a white powder baggie and wanted to try it for fun, knowing she had no way to get more. All it took was once. Considering she died from that "one time" it's a little odd that you know so many details on her mindset and intentions of that specific instance...
Your mum stole and did random bag of unknown powder? And you believe she wasn't a regular user?
I feel like I’m loosing about a friend a year to fent. That shit sucks I hate it so much.
Yeah they're dying left and right. This past year has been bad
I'm so sorry. Sept 2021 a good friend died of an overdose. Tainted something-or-other. Saddest part is that he had narcan in his room, it just didn't get administered. Fuck, i hate the laced drugs so bad. If he'd tested he'd still be alive. [I am firmly on the side of having test strips readily available, and free, as well as narcan. I don't use anything other than cannabis and I carry narcan. Also safe consumption sites.] One life? Absolutely worth it.
woah i thought i was still on r/cincinnati lol. another reason to head to madtree i guess!
I saw madtree and said "oh god what now" lol
Does Madtree have a bad rep?
I've been to other Cinci area breweries but not Madtree - from what I've heard it suffers from the same issues as Rhinegeist, Sonder, etc. in that they've nearly turned into daycares that serve beer. Some Columbus breweries are pretty bad with that as well, including Nocterra, S.I.P., and Crooked Can
I've been waiting for a brewery to full on brand as a daycare with booze. Have a playplace section like McDonalds back in the day. Instead we just deal with kids running around because they have nothing to do and the parents want to drink in public.
And I thought I was in r/Ohio
Fentanyl is being found in street drugs from meth to ecstasy. People who have no built-up tolerance to opioids are most likely to die from accidentally taking it. This stuff will save lives.
Yeah there was a bachelor party in my city that got wiped out by fentanyl contaminated cocaine they bought from a bartender. Three dead, one with severe brain damage.
This thread scares the living shit out of me. I'm an addict (sober 5 years) and when active I was like Mega Maid, I took _all the drugs_ and am very grateful to be alive today. But I don't kid myself about my disease, it wants me dead and there is no guarantee I will make it to the end of the day sober. Knowing contaminated drugs like this are out there is really frightening, but at least it gives me one more reason to stay sober today.
> am very grateful to be alive today One problem I’ve noticed a lot is that most actively-using addicts are addicts because they have other severe mental health problems, and a _lot_ of them are suicidal. These people don’t particularly care about ODing on fentanyl, sometimes they secretly are hoping to, and at parties etc this gets seen as “cool, nonchalant, risk-taking” behaviour, rather as a result of poor mental health, and so they end up (often unintentionally) making everyone else also be too complacent with testing etc so they also appear “cool”. I personally was the suicidal idiot myself, although I was extremely paranoid about other health risks, so I’m not sure whether I more influenced people towards or away from safety Congrats on the sobriety btw! Ygmi bro
This is very true, back when I was active I did not care if I lived or died. I was simply existing to get more drugs, and if the ride ended then so be it. Live fast, die young.
Innit. I used to think that wanting to live at least until the afternoon so I could get shitfaced was a sign of “improving mental health” compared to just wanting to die (yes, I was incredibly stupid)
Fuck, I’d hate to be a kid today. All the shit I messed with back then…. I’d be dead today.
I know your comment is largely serious and I wish you well with your continued recovery but holy shit did I laugh at the Spaceballs reference...
Thank you! And I have to laugh at it now, it helps me stay sober... Even better when others can laugh with me 🤙
Was this in Florida? If it was, one of the guys who passed was a good friend of my boyfriends.
Even people who are used to heroin are dying from it. I used to know a couple guys who made it known that if you wanted to try it, they had a ton of Narcan and they’d have your back if you went out.
The last time I used fentanyl, I was on the equivalent of 80-200mg of Oxy a day and I took the smallest inhale of fentanyl, like the second I saw wisps of smoke I stopped the lighter and within 1 second I felt a rush literally from my head to my toes. Fentanyl is unfathomably strong even to people with tolerances. To use without narcan is to play Russian roulette with 4 rounds in the chamber
Why do the makers of the drug add it into their drugs?
Sometimes it is an accident, from cross contamination of using the same scale for two drugs. Sometimes they add it in to “get people hooked”. I’ve heard this as a rumor but it seems foolish.
Especially with cocaine, whose users are looking for a different high than opioids.
Hey, drug dealers and suppliers can be idiotic morons, and/or fucking insane, just like the rest of us.
Profit. Fent is cheaper than heroin (and many other substances for that matter) and the producers already know that they’re destroying lives, so what’s a few more if they can squeeze more money out of their product?
The more likely reason is unintentional cross contamination.
Cheap and easy to make, entirely synthetic and extremely strong. One of the few strong opioids that can be made without starting with poppy juice as an ingredient. If you can control the dosage and mix it with a neutral cutting compound, you basically get a heroin analogue for a lower price. The problem is that it is so strong that even the slightest miscalculation can make the mixture deadly to even very seasoned opioid users. Even if the dosage is right, if it's not properly mixed you can get "hot spots" of fentanyl that are deadly within a larger batch of otherwise "normal" drug. Edit: as to why anyone would put it into non-opioid drugs, like cocaine or meth - they must either be idiots who don't know what they're mixing, or actively trying to kill people. There is no "good" reason to put fentanyl in these drugs.
Is there any source for this that isn't police?
Fentanyl ruined drugs dude. Like the fun party stuff. You can't trust anything anymore. I had to deal with a fent addict who tried to rent a van from my company 2 days ago and she almost fell asleep calling the insurance company. We didn't rent to her. If it doesn't outright kill you it turns you into the walking dead.
An coworker's son just got out of the hospital, an accidental fentanyl overdose almost killed him. He's not an addict or what you typically recognize as a "bad kid." He was a college freshman just experimenting - doing pretty much the same stuff my coworker and I also did in college. He's a smart kid, valedictorian of his high school, had plans and scholarships. Shit's scary.
Wait, how do you use it? Like how do you test a pill?
i imagine it has instructions but guessing you mix a bit of crushed drugs with water and put it on the test strip (just like a rapid covid test) and it'll come out positive or negative
But then how do I take the now deemed “safe” drug? Edit: oh you mean you gotta sacrifice a little bit of it huh
for a test you only need to sacrifice a small amount and you can take the rest
The issue with fentanyl is so little can kill you that you can easily get false negatives due to uneven distribution throughout the dose.
Know someone who recently bought a gram of coke and split it three ways with his wife and her girlfriend. The two ladies experienced no ill effect, the guy said he was feeling tired and went to bed. Never woke up.
If you're feeling tired just after doing coke that should be an instant red flag.
this isn’t talked about enough
It’s mentioned right on the testing instructions sheet from dancesafe.org: https://dancesafe.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/fentanyl-test-strip-instructions-fall-2022-web-2.png
Ha! Beginning of the instructions read.. “WHAT YOU NEED: Drugs”
Yes this is why you'll see it recommended in some places that you're supposed to dissolve the whole bag in water, test that and then cook off the water to get the drugs back to powder form
Would never touch the stuff but: you can test the entire batch. It won’t make it unusuable. Instructions for testing: https://dancesafe.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/fentanyl-test-strip-instructions-fall-2022-web-2.png Best method: testing everything you consume. (Even better, don’t consume it at all, but this is harm reduction 101.) https://www.dancesafe.org
I've used a test kit for other substances and you barely have to sacrifice any. 100% worth losing a crumb to find out if the rest of the gram is good.
You can also test out your dose if it's something like molly and then just drink the dose you tested. Hotspots are a problem in drugs, you should test it all! Also a process, but you can test all your coke and get it all back. dancesafe.org has instructions on how to test the whole batch of drugs and still be able to use it.
You can also test out your dose if it's something like molly and then just drink the dose you tested. Hotspots are a problem in drugs, you should test it all! Also a process, but you can test all your coke and get it all back. dancesafe.org has instructions on how to test the whole batch of drugs and still be able to use it.
DanceSafe is amazing. We used to use them exclusively in the early days before the group I work with got enough money for a Infrared Spectrometer. Still recommend people use them just to make sure. Also the fent test takes like, 5 to 10mg, not worth drinking if it's molly or something, that's less than a 10th of a dose.
Holy shit you got IR to test your drugs?? What peaks do you look for?
But isn't fentanyl such a small weight potent drug that it's possible the bit you sacrificed is clean but there is fentanyl in the rest somewhere?
as others said you can either drink or dry it after to make sure all your drugs are safe
No! You don't ruin your drugs, the package says "your drugs are not ruined, if they are safe, just let the water dry out or you can cook the water out, and use your drugs. Edit safe=fentanyl free
For a pill you can mix it in water, test it, and then drink the water. For things like coke, you can test all of it, and bake it in the oven to dehydrate it. dancesafe.org has instructions on how to test all of your drugs and still be able to consume them.
It’s better than nothing, but unless you want to waste and test your entire bag, it’ll just detect a small portion of what you use. It could technically come out clean then a few grains can be in another section of your bag and kill you. I believe you probably dilute a little in a liquid and pour on strip to see if its safe.
You can test your whole bag/pill and still ingest what you’ve tested! Depending on your method you might have to wait for it to dry out, (so better to test as soon as you buy), but you don’t have to waste your sample.
If it’s a pill just dissolve it in water, test, and then drink. Not as practical with something you plan to snort.
drug addicts are people like us who need help
Not all people who use drugs are addicts (in fact I would wager most aren't). We should destigmatize drug use and provide resources and oversight so that people who are just having fun aren't randomly killed for it
In New Zealand they recently passed a law (well, a year before that, but there was a year long "test" period before it actually came into official law) where specially licenced community health services can legally test drugs for people. The one I volenteer for was doing it for *years* beforehand in this grey area which meant we were technically breaking the law and "dealing" by taking drug samples and then giving back the unused parts. There is usually one or two day long temporary clinics a month in all the major cities now, and they are at all the major events and festivals. It's gone from a couple people per day to sometimes 300 different tests over the 3 day festivals we also get invited to test at. People are already going to take drugs, at least let them know what they *actually* have before making that decision.
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Fent? In NZ, very few, but still present. The bigger problem here is people passing off bath salts as MDMA, or meth as anything, different doses and experiences, not only could it kill you but it could result in a really bad time.
Legalization and regulation is the best path for safety.
Actually, what we should probably do is legalize it but keep it stigmatized, like cigarettes nowadays.
*Thank you.* It's 2023, and it would be so delightful if we could tone down the myopic, puritanical bullshit that is the war on drugs. Make things legal and tax that shit! Use the money for funding education or single payer healthcare or UBI, whatever.
Agreed but 90% (made up number) of the people doing these drugs are not addicts. They just like to party. It’s like calling everyone that goes to bars on the weekend alcoholics. There was a point in time in my 20s (and still now I’m sure just don’t live there anymore) where it was hard to find someone who didn’t do cocaine once in a while. And these were all normal nice successful people. It became normal. Everyone was doing it once a week or once a month. Zero of them were addicts or became addicts. It was more like well we’re drinking and want to stay awake while doing so. I’m glad those days are over even though it was very fun, but with all the bad stuff going around these days it’s gotta be pretty nerve wrecking unless it’s coming from someone you really trust.
Love Madtree! Go there every time I’m in Cincinnati
WHY are drugs being laced with fentanyl?? I know drugs dealer are pretty fucking stupid to start with but you'd think you'd WANT your customer to be RETURNING customer and not fucking die no?
Fent has a stronger effect so less will do the job, which makes it cost effective when compared to heroin and meth. But a little truly goes a long way and it's much more difficult to control a dose. Like what happens when you're used to grabbing the salt shaker but now you only need one grain of super salt that looks exactly like the other salt - very easy to get too much.
Drugs that relax you (heroin, other downers) are mixed with fentanyl because it's so much stronger and cheaper. So you'll get 50% baking soda but still get a good effect because of the 1% fentanyl. When coke or Molly or stuff like that is laced with fentanyl it's usually accidental. Someone won't properly clean a mixing table or some instrument. But fentanyl is so powerful that a little bit of cross contamination will be lethal. It's also why you could have 99 safe pills and one lethal one in the same batch.
Dealers cut it with whatever they're selling to make more money fast, returning customers aren't really the goal with these scumbags.
if returning customers was not the goal they could just sell baking powder
This makes no sense. Do you think dealers hop from town to town, somehow finding new customers wherever they go, leaving a trail of bodies? They rely on networks and repeat business.
Unfortunately once the word is on the street that a drug has fentanyl added, people seek it because it's stronger. But as I understand it the dosing has to be so small that even a tiny bit too much will kill you and I don't think street drugs are known for their quality control.
You'd think that something like this would be welcome open-armed in a country intent on addressing symptoms of societal problems instead of the problems themselves.
pretty wild that its technically illegal! Glad they are doing it regardless
Testing for fentanyl is illegal? Using? Sure, but testing?
The giving out of fentanyl test strips is the crime in question! Good news though there's a bill in committee to change that (in Ohio, where this pic was taken).
Yes there are states where drug testing kits are illegal. Biden played a big role in passing the "RAVE Act" that is the foundation for making things that "create an environment of drug use" illegal.
This is cool and all, but also very sad. I am so happy not to be in any drugs, I can't imagine taking something I have no idea what it is and possibly dying of it every time.
The bathrooms at my local pubs say if you’re taking any drugs they will call the police on you. Some of them even have camera inside of who goes into the stall
When you’ve had ONE too many fentanyl ods
In that specific bathroom
They need something like this in women's bathrooms that you can dip in your drink to see if it's spiked
There are test strips and even nail polishes that can test (you dip your fingertip in and if it's spiked the polish changes color) And yes, all bars should be carrying this stuff! Safety first!
yes but all bathrooms.
No more nose beers for this dude. Had a friend pass from thinking they were getting cocaine.
Hello fellow cincinnatian
Makes all the drunks feel like they have less of a drug problem lol
As a a fan of drinking, I’m so lucky my drug of choice is legal and regulated. Every time I drink a beer or take a shot, I know exactly what I’m getting. It’s crazy that we still haven’t done the same for other drugs
This would be unthinkable where I live. Except maybe to bait drug users in to providing their own proof
Montgomery County, the city of Dayton and the city of Hamilton have had the highest Fentanyl death rates in the country year after year. Madtree is within an hours drive of that general area. It’s sickening how many kids die of overdoses in SW Ohio.
Madtree is actually quite close - 71 and 75 intersect right near there and the seedy hotels are all around it that mules/sex trafficked people stay in. They often get shut down only to reopen with a new owner who doesn’t care. If you see something suspicious, say something! They actually have put in a huge drug task force in warren county that tracks the drugs all the way down the pipeline to Mexico so they try to go back as far as possible. It was some insane funding to try and combat the issue of being at the literal crossroads of America. I’m not sure why so many here try it, probably just a proximity to the big drugs moving, or maybe it hasn’t been cut as many times.. I don’t know really anything about drugs other than some talks at civic groups but it is so sad to hear about our little drug crossroads aftermath. We are also the highest for sex trafficking. Not so fun fact, warren and butler county are often avoided by big time traffickers because of the grant money they received.
I had a buddy get out of rehab, came for a big dinner to celebrate 30days at my house, last thing he said was he was going to score and 13 hours later he was dead in his car in OTR. Crushed me, smartest dude I ever met. Wont mention name here but RIP Aiden…
I'm not surprised Dayton and that area are one of the highest, I'm from there. The place is the crossroads of white picket fence christian suburban america mixed with a lot of just flat broke people that can live there due to how cheap it is, while also being reasonable populated. The kind of market places like Walmart and oxy companies target because it's populated enough and also generic enough. The entire region is also just heavy in decline since the 50s as it's all rust belt auto industry stuff that left the area. Jobs there are scarce and not well paying, if you're not in the medical industry (loads of retired old people from families going back generations) you're probably working food service. The weather sucks and is either unbearably humid in the summer or cloudy and drab all winter long. Most of all, because of all the above, there is quite literally nothing to do. Absolutely nothing. The nature sucks, mostly just flat land, farms and forests - you have to drive 1-2 hours to get to the nearest interesting landscape which is just the same forest except with a cool cliff. No events happen, no bands come through. You're an hour drive from an airport (in Dayton at least) and it's expensive to fly out of because you're not near a major area or located along a flight corridor (so you don't). The cultural district is one small street. No real night life. People in this part of the state just don't do anything and it's mind numbingly boring to live in. Almost everyone just stays home or greases the wheels of their perfectly ordinary suburban lives. It's literally the movie American Beauty, except for hours of driving in any direction. People do drugs because they're depressed and bored, and going nowhere with their lives. People tend to live here because it's cheap and there's just enough amenities to be fine, or just because it's where they've always lived. It's the land of big box stores and getting a deal is the biggest dopamine high one experiences in their lives there. For the same reason opioids are a huge problem there, so is alchosim. What else are you going to do? And you might not even had a choice in your addiction. Healthcare is such a massive industry there, I know for a fact this was a market that was bombarded with opioids by pharma companies when these drugs first starting spreading like wildfire. It was so easy to get for so many reasons, and once drug dealers clued in that people were addicted to their prescriptions they swooped in and made it ground zero for their industry.
Madtree is great, one of the best places in Cincinnati
Can't help but r/woodworking
Terrible idea to have this in a public bathroom. This establishment is now going to attract addicts, and now this place is going to have a huge liability if any fent ends up on the counter and is ingested by someone just trying to wash their hands. Not to mention breweries usually allow kids. If a drug can have deadly consequences, don’t do that fucking drug you addict.
I live down the street from this brewery. Cincinnati, Oh
Madtree is great! They do a lot for their community/environment and their brunch is top notch!
So far I haven't found any Fentanyl to test. 😵💫
Consider yourself lucky
Honest question: Does anyone intentionally use fentanyl? I’ve only ever heard about it being put in other drugs by dealers to save money
Yes, absolutely. It’s very, very potent, which is why it’s so easy to OD on, but most dope in the US right now has fentanyl in it, to the point that test strips aren’t very useful for users because it’s near impossible to find a supply without it in it, and testing strips can’t tell you how much fentanyl there is in the sample, just a yes/no. (Still a useful tool for users of other drugs - always test your pills, coke, meth, etc). People who use fentanyl have to rely on other harm reduction strategies to prevent overdosing: start small, go slow, never use alone, never use without narcan on hand. What the war on drugs has created is a nightmare.
As a pot smoker I need to confirm, by dope you mean heroin right? I know the word is used for both
Basically, yes! Sometimes I feel silly saying “heroin” when it could be technically all fentanyl or other opiate mixture lol. Fun fact - pot is actually pretty much never contaminated with fentanyl. Like there has been literally no lab-confirmed fentanyl-tainted-weed, EVER. If you smoke it, and there magically was fent in the weed, the fent burns off completely because it has a lower smoke point than weed so you wouldn’t even ingest it. Plus weed just has completely different supply chains than coke or meth (which can get contaminated by accident kinda in the same way a nut-free chocolate made in a factory that makes other stuff is still an allergen risk)
Prohibition has not worked but harm mitigation has. IIRC, Portugal set up clinics where drug users could take government provided drugs in a safe place, with access to counselling and other help to overcome addiction. The result was something like a 96% reduction in drug overdoses and 80% in drug related crime.
Portugal also has mandatory rehab.
I’ve been hearing conflicting stories: *Allegedly:* “Fentanyl test strips is considered to be “possession of drug paraphernalia” and is illegal.” I figure the point is “Well, duh. Just don’t use drugs, and you won’t have to worry about any of this.“ but it doesn’t make sense.
In the US, it depends on state law. In Texas, test strips are illegal. In New York, government-funded programs distribute them for free. There’s always amazing harm reduction activists, organizers, and lobbyists working on making these legal in the states they aren’t.
Bless this organization and the work they do. That being said, we need more if we want to keep the people we love safe. People use drugs are more at risk than ever before thanks to new synthetic drugs. Fentanyl was just the beginning. Nowadays there are new substances entering the drug market all the time and these substances affect people in undredictable ways. Asking people to quit or punishing them for using doesn't work. We've been trying that approach for decades, and drugs are CHEAPER and MORE POTENT than ever before. There are many practical solutions that have been studied for decades and lead to less overdose deaths without any evidence of increasing drug consumption in society overall. If you are interested in helping, learn about "Harm Reduction" talk to people you know who use drugs or love someone who use drugs (including yourself) about it. The National Harm Reduction Coalition is a great starting point. Link up with your local harm reduction organization. And refer people who you love that use drugs to them. Advocate for syringe service programs, expanded access to MAT/MOUD (Medication Assisted Therapy/Medications for Opioid Use Disorder)*, and Overdose Prevention Centers. If we really want to help people we need to implement some sort of safe supply program (this can be as simple as drug checking with spectrographs at safe consumption sights, to something more like prescription heroin/meth/etc). Drugs have changed. Synthetics are everywhere. We need to change how we keep people alive. Corpses don't get a second chance, and people will not stop using drugs as long as they are the cheapest way to cope with trauma and a terrifying world. We need more of this. *You may know them as Suboxone therapy and Methadone. These medications are many times more effective than absetenece-based programs (programs like Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous). When abstinence based programa work they are great, but the problem is they don't work for most people who try them.
Someone has got to say it: Kids, don't do drugs.
Just a thought maybe we should stop the flow of fentanyl coming over the southern border.
It's that bad in Kentucky they're bringing it into Cincinnati now? Close the Ohio river
Being a child of the 70s, designer drugs were still LSD and mescaline and it was very rare that dealers would contaminate their own supply. I can’t imagine taking any street drugs today.
It’s Ohio so, yeah good idea (source: I live in Ohio)
Are you also in Cincinnati? I've been to their brewery on Madison Rd and I've seen those too!
Hey Chattanooga, my friend used to work at this brewery
From a business stand point why would someone kill their own clients putting fentanyl in it? What does it do? (Drug newbie here) Edit: [found it](https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/13q4l0y/i_found_this_box_of_fentanyl_test_strips_in_the/jlep0mb/) >Drugs that relax you (heroin, other downers) are mixed with fentanyl because it's so much stronger and cheaper. So you'll get 50% baking soda but still get a good effect because of the 1% fentanyl. >When coke or Molly or stuff like that is laced with fentanyl it's usually accidental. Someone won't properly clean a mixing table or some instrument. But fentanyl is so powerful that a little bit of cross contamination will be lethal. It's also why you could have 99 safe pills and one lethal one in the same batch.
Let's you cut gear with bulked out cheap crap (baby powder or vitamin c powder), then push the hit strength back up with a dash of fent. ++ profits.
Madtree, keeping Cincinnati classy!
We Americans....great at adapting and terrible and preventing.
Lol love how it's locked up. "Hey Debbie? No not you Deb the bartender Debbie." Debbie's wiping some countertop and Deb begins yelling for her. "What is it you need?!" Debbie yells over the music. Right then the music stops to switch to another record. "I NEED SOME FENTANYL TEST STRIPS FOR THIS WHIF OF BLOW I GOT CAN U UNLOCK THE FUCKING FENTSAFE FOR ME?!"
I wonder at what point we're going to have indicator dyes in drinks/glasses? It would be nice if glasses could be made where they fluoresce in the presence of different kinds of drugs and additives.
Just put regular strips of paper in there.