Flesh-rotting 'krokodil' drug emerges in USA

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">http://www.usatoday.com/<br /><div class="story-asset story-leadin-asset" id="module-position-496ddd06273111e3af83005056bd7fcb" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;"><h2 class="lead-in" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; line-height: 27px; margin-left: 60px; margin-top: -2px;">Two cases in Arizona are the first involving caustic, heroin-like IV drug that originated in Russia.</h2></div><div class="story-asset story-metadata-asset" id="module-position-496de03a273111e3af83005056bd7fcb" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;"><div class="article-metadata-wrap" style="float: left; margin: 0px 30px 0px 60px; position: relative; width: 180px;"><section class="storymetadata-bucket expandable-photo-module" id="module-position-MnjycY8sn5Q"><aside class="single-photo expandable-collapsed" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" style="margin-bottom: 20px; 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position: relative; text-align: center;"><span class="inline-share-count inline-share-count-email" style="color: black; display: block; font-family: 'Futura Today Bold', arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"></span><span class="inline-share-btn-label inline-share-btn-label-email" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.1s; color: #999999; display: block; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 8px; font-weight: 700; line-height: 12px; position: relative; text-transform: uppercase; top: 1px; transition: color 0.1s;">EMAIL</span></span><span class="inline-share-btn inline-share-btn-more" data-share-method="facebook" data-uotrack="InlineShareMoreBtn" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; height: 28px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 10px; position: relative; text-align: center;"><span class="inline-share-count inline-share-count-more" style="color: black; display: block; font-family: 'Futura Today Bold', arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"></span><span class="inline-share-btn-label inline-share-btn-label-more" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.1s; color: #999999; display: block; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 8px; font-weight: 700; line-height: 12px; position: relative; text-transform: uppercase; top: 1px; transition: color 0.1s;">MORE</span></span></div></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">A powerful heroin-like drug that rots flesh and bone has made its first reported appearance in the United States, an Arizona health official says.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">Known on the street as "krokodil," the caustic homemade opiate is made from over-the-counter codeine-based headache pills mixed with iodine, gasoline, paint thinner or alcohol. When it's injected, the concoction destroys a user's tissue, turning the skin scaly and green like a crocodile. Festering sores, abscesses and blood poisoning are common.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">Frank LoVecchio, the co-medical director at the <a href="https://www.bannerhealth.com/Locations/Arizona/Banner+Good+Samaritan+Poison+and+Drug+Information+Center/_Banner+Poison+Control+Center.htm" style="color: #1990e5; text-decoration: none;" title="https://www.bannerhealth.com/Locations/Arizona/Banner+Good+Samaritan+Poison+and+Drug+Information+Center/_Banner+Poison+Control+Center.htm">Banner Good Samaritan Poison & Drug Information Center</a>, <a href="http://www.kpho.com/story/23521413/first-cases-of-flesh-eating-drug-reported-in-az" style="color: #1990e5; text-decoration: none;" title="http://www.kpho.com/story/23521413/first-cases-of-flesh-eating-drug-reported-in-az">told</a> KPHO-TV that Arizona health officials have seen two cases during the past week.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">"As far as I know, these are the first cases in the United States that are reported," he said. "So we're extremely frightened."</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">LoVecchio did not say where in the state the patients were located or provide details about their conditions.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">The drug — chemically called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desomorphine" style="color: #1990e5; text-decoration: none;" title="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desomorphine">desomorphine</a> — emerged around 2002 in Siberia and the Russian Far East but has swept across the country in just the past three years, according to a <i>Time</i> magazine <a href="http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2078355,00.html" style="color: #1990e5; text-decoration: none;" title="http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2078355,00.html">investigation</a>.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">Krokodil became popular in Russia because heroin can be difficult to obtain and is expensive. Krokodil costs three times less, and the high is similar to heroin though much shorter, usually 90 minutes.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">The average life expectancy among krokodil addicts in Russia is two to three years, according to <i>Time</i>, which called the narcotic "the most horrible drug in the world." Gangrene and amputations are common, and the toxic mix dissolves jawbones and teeth, much like the methamphetamine that Walter White cooks in <i>Breaking Bad</i>.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">As with all intravenous drug addicts, krokodil users are susceptible to HIV, hepatitis C and other blood-borne diseases, and have compromised immune systems.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">One recovering Russian krokodil addict, Irina Pavlova, told <i>Time</i> in 2011 that she injected the drug almost daily for six years. She has a speech impediment and impaired motor skills because of the resulting brain damage.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">Her brother was among the dozen or so addicts she shot up with. "Practically all of them are dead now," she said. "For some, it led to pneumonia, some got blood poisoning, some had an artery burst in their heart, some got meningitis, others simply rot."</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">A Russian woman using krokodil in June 2011 <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/krokodil-the-drug-that-eats-junkies-2300787.html" style="color: #1990e5; text-decoration: none;" title="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/krokodil-the-drug-that-eats-junkies-2300787.html">told </a><i>The Independent</i> that a fellow junkie refused to go to the hospital.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">"Her flesh is falling off and she can hardly move anymore," she said.</div></div>

Flesh-rotting 'krokodil' drug emerges in USA Flesh-rotting 'krokodil' drug emerges in USA

http://www.usatoday.com/ Two cases in Arizona are the first involving caustic, heroin-like IV drug that originated in Russia. (Photo: Eric G...

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