# overdose deaths - what drug are you seeing in your area



## coolidge (Nov 10, 2015)

What drug(s) are you seeing in your area?
DEA Releases 2015 Drug Threat Assessment: Heroin and Painkiller Abuse Continue to Concern
Mexican drug traffickers remain most significant criminal drug threat to the United States
*NOV 04 (WASHINGTON) *- DEA Acting Administrator Chuck Rosenberg today announced results from the 2015 National Drug Threat Assessment (NDTA), which found that drug overdose deaths are the leading cause of injury death in the United States, ahead of deaths from motor vehicle accidents and firearms. In 2013, more than 46,000 people in the United States died from a drug overdose and more than half of those were caused by prescription painkillers and heroin.

http://www.dea.gov/divisions/hq/2015/hq110415.shtml


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## NomadicMedic (Nov 10, 2015)

Heroin. Lots of heroin.


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## heckler18 (Nov 10, 2015)

Heroin laced with fentanyl


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## Ewok Jerky (Nov 10, 2015)

H


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## MonkeyArrow (Nov 10, 2015)

Heroin.


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## DesertMedic66 (Nov 10, 2015)

We actually don't have a huge problem with Heroin in my area. We still see it but its not a huge issue. We mostly deal with meth. Depending on the time of year we also see GHB, Molly, Acid, LSD, and cocaine (pretty much any of the "designer" drugs).


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## Tigger (Nov 10, 2015)

Opiates of some type and meth.


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## phideux (Nov 11, 2015)

This area, mostly pain pills.


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## cruiseforever (Nov 11, 2015)

Very rare to have a drug overdose death in our service area.  Law enforcement says Heroin is a huge problem, but it has yet to affect us in a big way.


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## TransportJockey (Nov 12, 2015)

My area seems to be seeing lots of benzo, mostly ativan and alprazolam, overdoses.


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## Flying (Nov 12, 2015)

Mostly opiates, heroin and fent.


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## escapedcaliFF (Nov 12, 2015)

Meth mostly. Starting to see an uptick in herion as the mexican drug cartels are pushing black tar again.


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## TattooedNay (Nov 28, 2015)

I am waiting for meth to makes its debut, but heroin is the winner.


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## RocketMedic (Dec 4, 2015)

K2


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## coolidge (Dec 4, 2015)

Flakka


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## MS Medic (Dec 5, 2015)

Spice is big here and formaldehyde laced weed has made a comeback. Still have the usual crack and meth but the ODs are coming from the first two.


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## DesertMedic66 (Dec 5, 2015)

Not so much of an overdose thing but wax is starting to become popular out here. We have had several explosions and burn patients due to the making of it.


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## CANMAN (Dec 5, 2015)

Heroin and opiate pills. When I was still volunteering I would run an overdose a week outta my volley house, and alot of the time it was loser's I went to high school with. I graduated in 2001, and since then my class has lost 31 people to overdoses..... Fools.


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## Scmedic08 (Dec 5, 2015)

Meth is the big one here. Followed close by heroin


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## LACoGurneyjockey (Dec 7, 2015)

Meth, benzos, opiates, and heroin every now and then.


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## FiremanMike (Dec 26, 2015)

Lead, mostly..

Our heroin addicts keep to themselves, for the most part.  We certainly have our share of narcan parties, but given our run area, I certainly wouldn't consider it to be a surprising number.


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## jlw (Jan 1, 2016)

Heroin, other opiates, some benzo's, and even a couple benedryl.


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## STXmedic (Jan 1, 2016)

Heroin and a lot of the synthetics (WetWet has spiked lately). The synthetics don't usually die right away, though; they tend to get perma-fried and stuck in the ICU with irretractable seizures and brain death.


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## COmedic17 (Jan 2, 2016)

Among the transient population - Heroin and Meth.

Among the student population - Benzos ( primarily Xanax)  and adderall.

Been seeing a significant amount of adderall induced seizures in the student population.


And a handful of people taking large quantities of mucinex.. After running a couple people who had taken "a handful" of mucinex, I asked one why and they said "it connects them with the spirit world"... I assume it causes some degree of hallucinations...


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## k9Dog (Jan 2, 2016)

Mainly heroin, crack and meth (San Francisco).


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## TrueNorthMedic (Jan 2, 2016)

Mostly prescription opiates and a bit of cocaine. Crystal meth has been making a huge comeback in the last year or so, which is worrisome. Also people love to OD on baclofen here, too.


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## Oz army medic (Jan 20, 2016)

Ice = Meth and Zombie = Meth con LSD. Rural area in the bush and occasionally White Lady.


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## FiremanMike (Jan 21, 2016)

LSD is back?


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## 18G (Jan 24, 2016)

There has been a few overdoses from *loperamide* (*Imodium*). Little did I know, loperamide is an opiate derivative and overdoses can be treated with Narcan. 

Here is a news story on these overdoses that happened in my region: 

http://www.winchesterstar.com/article/officials_warn_of_new_overdose_danger

Imodium (loperamide) Overdose

[INFORMATION FROM LORD FAIRFAX EMS COUNCIL, VA]

There was recently a fatal overdose secondary to the abuse of "Kirkland Anti-Diarrhea" (Loperamide) in the Lord Fairfax region. This is an over the counter medication, below you will find further information regarding Loperamide. The Blue Ridge Poison Control Center has been consulted, further research is being done by them as well. The University of Virginia hospital has already treated several Loperamide overdose patients. The following information was forwarded earlier this week, 

"After doing some research and talking with the UVA Poison Control Center (where several such patients have been cared for) I share the following:

1. Loperamide is being used in exceptionally high doses to:

a. Attempt a "do it yourself" detox from Heroin
b. Obtain a "narcotic like high."

2. Early consultation with the Poison Control Center 1-800-222-1222 is imperative

3. Loperamide is a Potassium Channel Blocker and as such results in a prolonged QT interval (up to 700 msec)

4. Patients are at risk for Torsade and other fatal ventricular arrhythmias

5. The prolonged QT is treated with magnesium


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## Burritomedic1127 (Jan 29, 2016)

Heroin. Ive had to give Narcan on multiple different occasions to people I went to high school with. Its pretty bad here, we average about 4-5 a shift


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## Obstructions (Jan 29, 2016)

I may have been here only 6 months but I have yet to see any severe OD on anything. The only few I have seen have been on were "benign" OD out of a large addiction recovery facility in our PSA like sleep aids, and cough suppressants (for DMT high).
It sounds like from other crews and state that there is a lot more of heroin around, but I have yet to see it.


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## Akulahawk (Jan 31, 2016)

Where I'm at, we rarely see an OD death. This is primarily due to the fact that it's a very rural county and most of the OD deaths are called on scene. What I see a LOT of is meth OD and the occasional THC OD. I don't mean "weed" but rather the far more concentrated stuff. Only time will tell if Dab pills will be making a solid appearance.


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## harold1981 (Feb 1, 2016)

Ever since events started hiring private EMS as a prerequisite to get their permit, we have seen a decline in drug OD's. Cases get solved on the spot by ALS teams who have extra training and lots of experience with party drugs. They are fully equipped to treat the patients for a few hours, up to the point of releasing them and even initially unstable patients rarely get transported from the party scene to a hospital. Lots of prevention work is being done as well: testing of pills, campaigns on safe use, training of security personnel, etc.
When we do see the OD's, it will be anything from cocaine, cannabis, MDMA, GHB, LSD to sometimes LSA, poppers or scopolamine. Heroin or Methadon OD's do happen, but are really rare. I think that in our country, our collegeas in Amsterdam see the whole spectrum of drugs, in all its variaties.


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## Oz army medic (Feb 2, 2016)

FiremanMike said:


> LSD is back?


Yeah they mixing the stuff with ice then want to eat us go figure lol


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## STXmedic (Feb 2, 2016)

Made a TI the other day- the guy ended up testing positive for barbiturates... I don't even know the name of any recreational barbiturates...


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## Oz army medic (Feb 2, 2016)

Like wise over here in the bush. It is getting a little rough on what Pt's put in their bodies.  Lol


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## firecoins (Feb 3, 2016)

etoh abuse.  heroin but no heroes.


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## Bullets (Feb 3, 2016)

Thankfully very little deaths, 2 narcan deployments last year, i think weve had one this year. All the heroin dealers live in my town but the residents usually just smoke a ton of weed, and we're starting to see a lot of synthetic marijuana stuff like K2 which is more difficult.


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## kindofafireguy (Feb 4, 2016)

Tons, and I mean TONS, of synthetic. Ours tends to not be just synthetic but is laced with PCP, industrial cleaners, gasoline, etc. And they like to fight. Also get a lot of straight PCP and crack overdoses. Get pulled over by PD, try to eat the cookie. meth, or whatever they're carrying. Had one eat over 7 grams of crack and 100+tabs of E.


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## wilderness911 (Feb 5, 2016)

Out in the Bay Area there have been a lot of ODs recently due to fentanyl-laced heroin and fake Xanax. Seems to be splitting the line between the typical junkie crowd (smack) and the upper middle class kids (Xanax). This is a phenomenon that I really don't understand - wouldn't fentanyl be much more difficult to get ahold of, and much pricier, than either of the drugs they are cutting with it?

Either way, the subtleties of micrograms vs milligrams were clearly lost on whoever put the stuff together. Idiots.


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## NomadicMedic (Feb 5, 2016)

Last weekend I worked a 12 hour shift and had the luck to get 2 narcotic ODs. One a code. 

Lots of badness around.


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## Austin carawan (Feb 5, 2016)

4 heroin ODs since January first just in our volunteer fire district, something like 11 in the tri  county area....


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## wilderness911 (Feb 7, 2016)

So I did a little research into the fentanyl ODs and found some interesting information. Apparently, there has been an uptick in the availability of illicitly manufactured non-pharmaceutical fentanyl (NFP) since around 2001 when it first showed up on the scene. Some has been coming over the border from Mexico, and there have also been a handful (5-10) of clandestine fentanyl laboratories in the US that have been discovered. One guy with a college education ordered the precursor chemical and somehow managed to produce 87% pure fentanyl on his first run, in a quantity so large it was estimated to be worth up to $10,000,000. 

So now that we know where it is coming from, connect the dots and you get a scary realization: someone is sitting on so much black market fentanyl that they are making fake Xanax (a sh*tty, cheap, and widely available drug) out of it just to find something to do with the supply


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## wilderness911 (Feb 7, 2016)

Methinks we will be seeing more of this...


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## SpecialK (Feb 7, 2016)

Reading this is really astonishing.  I've simply never seen an opiate or opiate-like drug overdose and to find somebody who has you need to go find Paramedics who worked in the 1980s.  Equally, I've never used naloxone, never seen it used and again, I've only heard stories from Paramedics who used it twenty-plus years ago.  

What you will see, however, is a line of people outside the pharmacy in the morning waiting to collect their free methadone.  I'd rather see them there than unconscious or dead on the street.


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## NomadicMedic (Feb 7, 2016)

SpecialK said:


> Reading this is really astonishing.  I've simply never seen an opiate or opiate-like drug overdose and to find somebody who has you need to go find Paramedics who worked in the 1980s.  Equally, I've never used naloxone, never seen it used and again, I've only heard stories from Paramedics who used it twenty-plus years ago.
> 
> What you will see, however, is a line of people outside the pharmacy in the morning waiting to collect their free methadone.  I'd rather see them there than unconscious or dead on the street.



That just shows the difference. Aside from Zofran, I use Narcan more than any other drug in my bag.


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## wilderness911 (Feb 7, 2016)

SpecialK, are you located out of the US?


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## SpecialK (Feb 7, 2016)

wilderness911 said:


> SpecialK, are you located out of the US?



Surely am, I'm in New Zealand.

Methadone is free here, it's not subject to the $5 Pharmac co-payment for community prescriptions.  

Our main problem is locally-manufactured methamphetamine.


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## chaz90 (Feb 7, 2016)

DEmedic said:


> That just shows the difference. Aside from Zofran, I use Narcan more than any other drug in my bag.


Ironically, my top three are probably Zofran, Fentanyl, and Narcan.


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## SpecialK (Feb 7, 2016)

Hmm, I'd say definitely entonox is top, with the oral analgesics (paracetamol, ibuprofen and tramadol) and salbutamol (with ipratropium) either #2 or 3.


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## wilderness911 (Feb 7, 2016)

SpecialK said:


> Surely am, I'm in New Zealand.
> 
> Methadone is free here, it's not subject to the $5 Pharmac co-payment for community prescriptions.
> 
> Our main problem is locally-manufactured methamphetamine.



Ah, that explains it then. Most of the meth patients I see are 5150s - binge on meth for 7 days without sleeping and develop psychosis which is when the call comes in. But out in the states, prescription opiates are worse than heroin as far as ODs go.


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## DesertMedic66 (Feb 7, 2016)

Zofran and Fent are probably my top 2 with Albuterol /Atrovent coming in 3rd. Narcan is at the bottom of my list. I've given adenosine more than Narcan haha


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