Krokodil – The most dangerous new drug!

This new opiate for the poor was made in Russia as a substitute for heroin, which is becoming very expensive and unavailable for addicts.  It can be made at home, and from it, the skin of addicts becomes greenish and scaly, just like reptiles’. 

Krokodil (Crocodile) is the latest drug that can be made at home, and it first appeared in Russia. It is an opiate for the poor, and its effects are frightening. It is named “Krokodil” because its poisonous substances are quickly changing the look of the skin of the addicts, which is becoming greenish and scaly, like reptiles’ skin.

Russia has more than two million heroin addicts, more than any other country in the world. Efforts to reduce the flow of heroin from Afghanistan has led to its limited supply, increased price on the streets, and for those addicts who can not afford the next dose, even more terrible and ghastly thing – a drug that can be made at home. Its medical name is desomorphine and it is a synthetic opiate more powerful than heroin. It is made with a complex process of mixing and chemical reactions, which addicts know very well and do it several times a day.

And while heroin costs from 20 to 50 Euros, desomorphine can be “boiled” from Codeine-based pills for headache that cost two Euros per pack, and other ingredients that everyone has at home and can be very cheap to buy in the store. In case the vein is missed, an abscess is immediately appearing on the skin. The addicts who are using this drug for several years look terrible. Their skin becomes grayish, rotten, and, in the latter stages, you can actually see their bones. People are literally rotting to death.

Four years ago, Russian heroin addicts first discovered how to make a "Krokodil". Since then, the number of addicts is in rise, and it reached a peak in recent months. Every year, about 30.000 addicts die in Russia, which is one third of addicts’ deaths worldwide. It is estimated that about five percent of drug addicts in Russia use “Krokodil”, and about 100.000 more of them are using some other type of home-made opiate.

When someone goes to rehabilitation from heroin, symptoms last from five to ten days, after which there is great danger of their return.

With “Krokodil”, this is more complicated. Pains are lasting up to one month, and they are unbearable. To endure pain, rehabilitators have to be injected with extremely strong tranquilizers.

You can recognize “Krokodil” users by their specific smell of iodine, which is infiltrated into their clothes and can not be removed with washing.  Each apartment in which the “Krokodil” was boiled can be forgotten as a place to live because the smell can never be eliminated.

Addicts have no problem buying codeine tablets that are sold without a prescription, and pharmacists do not refuse to sell them even though they know why exactly they are bought.  The solution is obvious: ban the sale of codeine. But although the authorities are aware of the problem that lasts more than a year, they almost do nothing to resolve it.

Zhenya, former addict

“The effect of “krokodil” lasts from 90 minutes to two hours”, says Zhenya, a former addict.

“You don't sleep much when you're on krokodil, as you need to wake up every couple of hours for another hit. The cooking process takes at least half an hour, so being a krokodil addict is basically a full-time job. At the time we were cooking it at our place, and loads of people came round and pitched in. For three days we just kept on making it. By the end, we all staggered out yellow, exhausted and stinking of iodine.” –says Zhenya.