In the years
we have been involved in helping others overcome addiction, nothing prepared us
for the horrors of a new drug Desomorphine, Street named “Krokodil”. The
effects are permanent and it is said that this drug is worse than “TIK”
(Crystal Meth).
It is a drug
that causes your skin to rot and look scaly, like a crocodile’s, and the
effects on the brain are even worse than the physical signs that people that
have been using this deadly drug displays. Users mix codeine with a brew of
poisons such as paint thinner, hydrochloric acid and red phosphorus scraped
from the strike pads on matchboxes. The result—a murky yellow liquid with an
acrid stink—mimics the effect of heroin at a fraction of the cost.
Wherever on
the body a user injects the drug, blood vessels burst and surrounding tissue
dies, sometimes falling off the bone in chunks. That side effect has earned
krokodil its other nickname: the zombie drug. The typical life span of an
addict is just two or three years.
One of our
guys who has a TIK addiction, told us that he used Krokodil while outside. It
started with continuous seizures, the medics on the ambulance declared him
dead. They had to introduce shock therapy to bring him back to life. The
results were scary. Spending many days in the hospital made him realize that he
cannot go on living the life of an addict and returned home.
Sitting
across from us was a 32-year-old man we didn’t recognise. Shaking
uncontrollably due to shock to the brain, he explains that the pressure on his
brain has become so terrifyingly strong that it is difficult for him to do hard work. He has to return to the hospital for an operation to mend the spot where
the blood vessel burst in his brain.
‘My blood is
not thickening, I cannot produce enough blood to keep from passing out.’ He
said. ‘My nose keeps bleeding and for the first few days my body refused any
food to stay inside.’
The horrors
of this man, who came to us when he was still energised and full of life, is
now a man who is sick, in constant pain due to swelling and the effects that
this drug had on his body.
He has told
us that now is the time to stop using drugs, he does not want to die like this.
So, please
be warned by this man’s story – this drug, and any other drugs, can cause
serious damage and even worse….death.
