overdose deaths - what drug are you seeing in your area

[NomadicMedic]

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

Lots of badness around.

 

[Austin carawan]

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

 

[wilderness911]

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

 

[wilderness911]

Methinks we will be seeing more of this...

 

[SpecialK]

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.

 

[NomadicMedic]

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.

 

[wilderness911]

SpecialK, are you located out of the US?

 

[SpecialK]

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.

 

[chaz90]

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.

 

[SpecialK]

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

 

[wilderness911]

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.

 

[DesertMedic66]

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