# By popular demand: Krokodil comes to the U.S. of A. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 27, 2013, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/by-popular-demand-krokodil-comes-to-the-u-s-of-a/669816 "2013-09-27T17:24:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![deltasigma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e5b9ba/32.png) [@deltasigma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deltasigma)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/by-popular-demand-krokodil-comes-to-the-u-s-of-a/669816/1 "2013-09-27T17:24:13Z")
Clap if you still have some appendages. [gag . . . retch. . .] > [@](#): > > New reports suggest drug users in America have begun using a [notorious, flesh-destroying drug that originated in Russia](http://www.businessinsider.com/crocodile-germany-bochum-desomorphine-2011-10). > > In an [interview with Arizona’s KLTV](http://www.kltv.com/story/23521413/first-cases-of-flesh-eating-drug-reported-in-az), Dr. Frank LoVecchio, the co-medical director at Banner’s Poison Control Center, said the U.S. now had its first two recorded cases of the use of Desomorphine, also known as “krokodil.” > The drug is made using readily available codeine, mixed with other ingredients such gasoline, paint thinner, iodine, hydrochloric acid, and red phosphorous. It is often used as a substitute for heroin, as it has roughly similar effects but is three times cheaper than the opiate, and it is far easier to obtain If you get to the part of the article where it tells you that the images at a certain link are horrible and graphic . . . you’re probably gonna wanna take them at their word. ---
**Author:** ![Carl\_Corey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Carl\_Corey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carl_Corey)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/by-popular-demand-krokodil-comes-to-the-u-s-of-a/669816/2 "2013-09-27T17:55:57Z")
Isn’t that a doper name? And I am not clicking that link. ---
**Author:** ![Snickers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/by-popular-demand-krokodil-comes-to-the-u-s-of-a/669816/3 "2013-09-27T18:04:28Z")
Ho-Lee cats, you weren’t kiddin’. Oof. Interesting that healthy bone - that is, bone fully encased within its protective fleshy covering - is much whiter than that. ---
**Author:** ![Snickers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/by-popular-demand-krokodil-comes-to-the-u-s-of-a/669816/4 "2013-09-27T18:05:36Z")
Oh, and **delta** ’s first link is fine. It’s the link within that link that you don’t want to click. I didn’t look at the second. On edit, now I did. There’s a picture there, but it’s sanitized and nowhere near horrific. ---
**Author:** ![deltasigma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e5b9ba/32.png) [@deltasigma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deltasigma)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/by-popular-demand-krokodil-comes-to-the-u-s-of-a/669816/5 "2013-09-27T18:44:40Z")
I know better than to look at pix of krokodil victims/addicts. I guess it’s possible to find some that won’t give you nightmares but I’m not interested in testing that theory 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2013, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/by-popular-demand-krokodil-comes-to-the-u-s-of-a/669816/6 "2013-09-28T03:19:35Z")
Kids, I know zombies are popular right now, but don’t do shit that makes you really look like a zombie in real life, down to rotting flesh and exposed bone. While you’re still alive. Seriously, how effed up do you need to be to use this shit? ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2013, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/by-popular-demand-krokodil-comes-to-the-u-s-of-a/669816/7 "2013-09-28T03:28:49Z")
Codeine is both harder to obtain(in usable amounts) and more expensive than heroin in the USA. It is difficult to imagine someone who it would be cheaper and easier for them to create desomorphine than to just buy heroin(find a barrel of codeine powder that rolled off a truck?!) There is nothing inherently dangerous or flesh killing about desomorphine, it is the reactants not being properly removed after it is synthesized. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2013, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/by-popular-demand-krokodil-comes-to-the-u-s-of-a/669816/8 "2013-09-28T03:36:59Z")
Yeah, see, that’s the stupid thing - I just don’t see a cost-savings for the addict here. Maybe some of these loons saw videos on YouTube and thought “Daaaaaym! That shit is effed up, let’s try some!” using reverse insane troll logic or something. ---
**Author:** ![Rushgeekgirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rushgeekgirl/32/3715_2.png) [@Rushgeekgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rushgeekgirl)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2013, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/by-popular-demand-krokodil-comes-to-the-u-s-of-a/669816/9 "2013-09-28T18:08:33Z")
I fear my niece and her “hardcore” friends will jump at the chance to try it, along with every other drug/combo they can find. I think they do this shit just to brag about it. ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2013, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/by-popular-demand-krokodil-comes-to-the-u-s-of-a/669816/10 "2013-09-28T19:19:58Z")
I’m thinking either one of two things. This is a few drug nerds who seeing it online wanted to taste this exotic chemical. Or some immigrants or people with connections to Russia mailed some, or some codeine tablets over. Drug users often hang on to old habits even when changing country(Hmong being mailed opium etc). > **[Hmong carry opium habits to their new life in America. US CATCHES ON](https://www.csmonitor.com/1987/1230/adrugs.html)** > > Last spring United States postal officials here received an unusual letter. It warned them that \`\`hundreds and hundreds of opium boxes'' were being ---
**Author:** ![deltasigma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e5b9ba/32.png) [@deltasigma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deltasigma)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2013, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/by-popular-demand-krokodil-comes-to-the-u-s-of-a/669816/11 "2013-09-28T19:37:43Z")
> [@grude](#): > > This is a few drug nerds who seeing it online wanted to taste this exotic chemical. Excuse me, but ‘drug nerds’ are a bit more discerning than your average junkie. When you become desperate enough to shoot up with what amounts to untreated industrial waste, you’re something else. Not sure what exactly besides damaged, but definitely something else. ---
**Author:** ![Sateryn76](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e4f/32.png) [@Sateryn76](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sateryn76)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2013, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/by-popular-demand-krokodil-comes-to-the-u-s-of-a/669816/12 "2013-09-28T21:08:31Z")
Why don’t they just take the codine? Why are they mixing with that crap? I’ve done plenty of drugs, but I just never got the mindset that everything had to be Xtreme and edgy and crazy town. ---
**Author:** ![chronometer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c2a13f/32.png) [@chronometer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chronometer)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2013, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/by-popular-demand-krokodil-comes-to-the-u-s-of-a/669816/13 "2013-09-28T23:08:12Z")
Paracetamol-and-codeine tablets (e.g. Panadeine) are available over the counter in Europe and Australasia, and quite cheaply too. I’d guess the desomorphine hit is more intense than pure codeine? Or maybe it’s easier to make desomorphine than to extract the codeine from the Panadeine? Here’s a particularly [nasty amputation video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REP6NCDfAtg). The krokodil victim presents with a swollen, gangrenous, blackened foot. The other leg is wrapped in plastic. When the plastic is removed, the rotting flesh of the lower limb slides off the bone a bit like a loose sock. ---
**Author:** ![deltasigma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e5b9ba/32.png) [@deltasigma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deltasigma)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2013, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/by-popular-demand-krokodil-comes-to-the-u-s-of-a/669816/14 "2013-09-28T23:29:17Z")
> [@chronometer](#): > > When the plastic is removed, the rotting flesh of the lower limb slides off the bone a bit like a loose sock. Season to taste. :eek: I really don’t know why these thoughts pop into my head. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2013, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/by-popular-demand-krokodil-comes-to-the-u-s-of-a/669816/15 "2013-09-28T23:55:50Z")
> [@grude](#): > > I’m thinking either one of two things. > > This is a few drug nerds who seeing it online wanted to taste this exotic chemical. > > Or some immigrants or people with connections to Russia mailed some, or some codeine tablets over. Drug users often hang on to old habits even when changing country(Hmong being mailed opium etc). > > [Hmong carry opium habits to their new life in America. US CATCHES ON - CSMonitor.com](http://www.csmonitor.com/1987/1230/adrugs.html) Yeah, I don’t think this is going to become a big trend, least of all in the Southwest. ---
**Author:** ![si\_blakely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2013, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/by-popular-demand-krokodil-comes-to-the-u-s-of-a/669816/16 "2013-09-29T00:17:33Z")
> [@Sateryn76](#): > > Why don’t they just take the codine? Why are they mixing with that crap? > > I’ve done plenty of drugs, but I just never got the mindset that everything had to be Xtreme and edgy and crazy town. Codine does not “hit” like heroin or desomorphine - it is a much slower high, with a longer tail (similar to methodone, apparently). Desomorphine has a rapid hit but shorter tail that even heroin, leaving addicts chasing the next hit after a much shorter time interval. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2013, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/by-popular-demand-krokodil-comes-to-the-u-s-of-a/669816/17 "2013-09-29T05:06:00Z")
Earlier thread on the subject: [Addictive drug “Krokodil” AKA Desomorphine rotting flesh off addicts bones- Warning GRAPHIC website](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=630346&) thread started by **astro** 11-05-2011, with links to gruesome pics. Salient observation at [Post #4](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=14431349&postcount=4) (my bolding added): > [@Addictive drug "Krokodil" AKA Desomorphine rotting flesh off addicts bones- Warning GRAPHIC website](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/addictive-drug-krokodil-aka-desomorphine-rotting-flesh-off-addicts-bones-warning-graphic-website/601951/4): > > \< . . . schnapps . . . \> > > Seriously, that’s disgusting and disturbing. **I only looked at a couple pictures (the first one really would have been plenty), but how are these people alive?** They look like really gruesome examples of zombie special effects. Only they’re real. Gah. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2013, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/by-popular-demand-krokodil-comes-to-the-u-s-of-a/669816/18 "2013-09-29T18:37:37Z")
Damn, when I saw the thread title I thought someone had brought over the Cold War-era Russian humor magazine to the US as a competitor for Mad. It’d be better if it was about that. I saw earelier threads about the drug, and articles elsewhere, with graphic pix. You’d have to be REALLY desperate to use this stuff. It makes “meth mouth” look like a benign affliction. ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2013, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/by-popular-demand-krokodil-comes-to-the-u-s-of-a/669816/19 "2013-09-29T18:57:45Z")
> [@deltasigma](#): > > I know better than to look at pix of krokodil victims/addicts. I guess it’s possible to find some that won’t give you nightmares but I’m not interested in testing that theory 🙂 Then don’t make the same mistake that I did, and google “krokodil.” Yes, Google will give you pictures, and yes, they will be horrible. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2013, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/by-popular-demand-krokodil-comes-to-the-u-s-of-a/669816/20 "2013-09-29T23:30:38Z")
> [@Sateryn76](#): > > Why don’t they just take the codine? Why are they mixing with that crap? Or for that matter, why not just do heroin? It seems like the better choice, which is not something I would have ever thought I’d say. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/by-popular-demand-krokodil-comes-to-the-u-s-of-a/669816.md?page=2)