14 DAY TRIAL // The most dangerous drug known to man is now making its way across America. After being considered an isolated case in Arizona, the krokodil drug has now been reported in several cities around the US.
The krokodil drug is the cheaper version of heroin that people in Russia used to cook in their own homes by mixing large quantities of painkillers or codeine with alcohol, oil, gasoline, bleacher or other harmful substances. Injected in the skin, the drug, also called “the zombie drug,” causes the human flesh to rot from the inside out leading to gangrene, amputation and death, literally eating people alive.
The drug was considered isolated in Russia, but it started spreading, with cases reported both in the UK and in the US. The first krokodil use in the US was reported in Arizona, which is now considered to be the epicenter of the uprising.
After certain digging, it was discovered that one year ago two doctors from Missouri treated a patient “whose skin was rotted away from using krokodil,” and was officially marked as America's first documented case of krokodil use, according to Raw Story.
Two more cases were reported in Phoenix in September, and now potential cases have appeared in Illinois, Ohio and Oklahoma. The substance, officially called desomorphine, causes the death of the person using it in two to three years, depending on the amount consumed by the individual. Besides the fact that its effects are shocking, krokodil is highly addictive and somehow easy to make.
Regarding the spreading of the drug, physicians believe that it may also be because of the dirty needles heroin addicts share. The needles are infected with HIV, Hepatitis and Staphylococcus aureus, bacteria that can also lead to effects similar to the ones krokodil has, according to The Huffington Post.
It seems that as pressing as the situation is, people are still trying to deny the spreading of the drug in the US, blaming it on different factors that can have the same effect. Hopefully, these cases are not the beginning of a national outburst.