Krokodil: New Russian Drug (Warning Disturbing Images)

Krokodil, meaning crocodile is a drug running amok in Russia. It is a cheap and devastating alternative to the opiates that came before it. It is a drug that has come out of a dormant existence to a frenzied endemic within less than half a decade. It is way more potent than heroin and way cheaper too. Heroin costs roughly between from 25 euro to 70 euro per dose, the desomorphine that is "cooked" from codeine painkillers cost as little as 2 euro per pack. To produce the desomorphine (the medical name of Krokodil) all you have to do is mix the codeine from painkillers with paint thinner, iodine, red phosphorous (scraped from striking pads on matchboxes), hydrochloric acid, and gasoline.

As these images testify, the drug can be disfiguring, even escaping it will leave lifelong scars. When it is injected there a multiple consequences. As the crocodile nickname suggests, the skin of the addict becomes a gangrenous green and scaly. Gangrene and amputations occur then, porous bone tissues suffer in places such as the the lower jaw, creating a vacuum, as they are eaten up by the substances acidity.

Life expectancy is 2-3 years for those addicted to it. A Dr Yegorov spoke about the distinct, pungent smell of Krokodil users "It's that smell of iodine that infuses all their clothes...There's no way to wash it out, all you can do is burn the clothes. Any flat that has been used as a krokodil cooking house is best forgotten about as a place to live. You'll never get that smell out of the flat."

Greedy and evil pharmaceutical companies realizing that they are selling a fuck load of painkiller lobbied the government to veto making codeine painkillers proscription based. Zhenya who knows his shit, explains how the cheapness of krokodil means literally everyone is using instead of heroin, "You can feel how disgusting it is when you're doing it. You're dreaming of heroin, of something that feels clean and not like poison. But you can't afford it, so you keep doing the krokodil. Until you die."

I will leave you with one last video. I warn you, do not watch this if you do not want to see more of the horrors shown in the photographs earlier of the drug's victims.