Dr.Abhin Singala, a specialist at Presence St.
Joseph Medical Center in the Chicago suburb of Joliet, said he’s treating three
people who took “krokodil,” a cheap heroin knockoff from Russia known to cause
such extreme gangrene and abscesses that a user’s muscles, tendons and bones
can become exposed.
“If you want to kill yourself, this is the way
to do it,” Singla said according to the Sun-Times.
WARNING: Extremely graphic: See photos of the effects of krokodil)
According to Joliet Patch, Singla is treating
what appear to be the first cases of krokodil reported in the Chicago metro
area.
“As of late as last week, the first cases – a
few people in Utah and Arizona – were reported to have been using the
heroin-like drug, which rots the skin from the inside out,” Singala said in a
Tuesday press release. “It is a horrific way to get sick. The smell of rotten
flesh permeates the room. Intensive treatment and skin grafts are required, but
they often are not enough to save limbs or lives.”
While the drug has been in Russia for at least
a decade, krokodil is only now making its way to the states. The first reported
instances of the intravaneous drug cropped up in Arizona roughly two weeks ago.
Krokodil, named for the scaly green appearance
of skin once gangrene sets in, rose to popularity in Russia due to a heroin
shortage. Also known as desomorphine, the budget drug (roughly one-tenth the
cost of heroin) is made from codeine tablets combined with substances like
gasoline, paint thinner or lighter fluid.
As Forbes notes, however, desomorphine itself
isn’t responsible for the “rotting from the inside-out” effect of krokodil; the
drug was in fact patented in the ’30s and marketed in Switzerland under the
brand name Permonid.
The deadly effects from illicit version of the painkiller, however, stem from the substances Forbes says “amateur chemists” don’t properly remove.
Still, those facts are of little comfort to
Illinois health officials. The collar counties outside Chicago have seen an
alarming spike in heroin deaths in the past few years.
The average life expectancy for a krokodil
addict, Singala said, is less than two years.
In Will County where Singala is treating the
krokodil cases, he warns “Will County’s already burgeoning heroin epidemic may
have created a tolerance level to the point where users are now looking for
cheaper and better highs.”
The most effective weapon
in the war on drugs is education.
