# Instant opiate OD death? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 14, 2008, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-opiate-od-death/449323 "2008-05-14T19:27:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Canadjun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@Canadjun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Canadjun)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2008, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-opiate-od-death/449323/21 "2008-05-16T12:49:18Z")
[QUOTE=vetbridge] I have administered thousands of fatal doses of pentobarbital\* to animals, and have known one person to elect this route for suicide. For a typical situation, the animal is unconscious before the entire dose is injected. When a cardiac monitor is being used, arrest occurs anywhere from seconds to a minute at most following administration. I have had two people change their minds in the midst of injection (and I inject rapidly). Once was a guy who thought he was being funny. The other was a woman who immediately recanted her recant. \*Pentobarbital 392 mg/ml [/QUOTE] IANAMD, but seems to me that’s comparing apples with oranges a bit, since pentobarbital is not an opiate like the OP was asking about. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2008, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-opiate-od-death/449323/22 "2008-05-16T13:18:28Z")
[QUOTE=Canadjun] IANAMD, but seems to me that’s comparing apples with oranges a bit, since pentobarbital is not an opiate like the OP was asking about. [/QUOTE] Well sure, but in The War On Drugs, we don’t let things like facts get in the way of scaring kids straight. I’ve had teachers refer to marijuana as an opiate, too. :rolleyes: (Not accusing \*\*vetbridge \*\*of doing that, just thinking that someone, somewhere, could easily have heard that phenobarb kills more-or-less instantly and decided to tell kids that heroin could do that, too.) ---
**Author:** ![vetbridge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5e925/32.png) [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2008, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-opiate-od-death/449323/23 "2008-05-16T13:21:46Z")
[QUOTE=Canadjun] IANAMD, but seems to me that’s comparing apples with oranges a bit, since pentobarbital is not an opiate like the OP was asking about. [/QUOTE] Nope, wasn’t mixing up opioids with barbiturates, rather I was responding to: [QUOTE=EJsGirl] Dr. Paul O. wrote and spoke about his various addictions, including IV pentathol to help him sleep. [/QUOTE] Should have included the quoted post. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2008, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-opiate-od-death/449323/24 "2008-05-16T16:28:32Z")
[QUOTE=chorpler] Are you mixing up fentanyl and carfentanyl or etorphine? Fentanyl is about 80-100 times stronger than morphine and is used as a surgical anesthetic or is sometimes prescribed in “patch” or “lollipop” form to cancer patients and the like; etorphine and carfentanyl are about 10,000 times stronger than morphine and are only ever used as large animal tranquilizers, because they’re too potent to be used safely in humans. [/QUOTE] I was actually thinking of sufentanyl, which is used on humans, and is much more potent than fentanyl. Even so, your point is well-made, as sufentanyl isn’t quite in the same league as carfentanyl either. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2008, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-opiate-od-death/449323/25 "2008-05-18T08:13:29Z")
Doesn’t accidentally injecting an air bubble in to the vein which when it reaches the heart causes death also account for the a proportion of the fatalities? ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2008, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-opiate-od-death/449323/26 "2008-05-18T13:01:18Z")
[QUOTE=Lust4Life] Doesn’t accidentally injecting an air bubble in to the vein which when it reaches the heart causes death also account for the a proportion of the fatalities? [/QUOTE] You generally have to inject a whole lot of air to kill yourself - something on the order of 1/4 a cup (80 mL) or more. Most heroin syringes aren’t nearly that big. Usually fatal embolisms are due to air that gets in during surgery or lung trauma. Small bubbles like you get in a syringe or IV will be absorbed by your system, although they can cause tissue damage. ---
**Author:** ![mattHatter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c37758/32.png) [@mattHatter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mattHatter)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2011, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-opiate-od-death/449323/27 "2011-03-09T16:50:33Z")
> [@chaoticbear](#): > > My impression of death from opiates involves heavy respiratory depression. Is it possible that these people don’t die instantaneously, but pass out and then die some minutes later, the needle still in the arm just being unmoved throughout the process? Give that… chaotibear(in a noncommittal, unisex inflection) a cigar! You’ve hit the nail, or needle may-hap, on the head! Or plunger! Sometimes people die as a result of car accidents, or falls, etc., from nodding off from the drug. And RARELY someone is poisoned by some toxic cut; in order to make more money, a seller will mix in a similar looking substance, and a \*million different mistakes \*can be made.(I apologize if I sound condescending, but I want to be clear.) **BUT** , as you suggested, the majority of opiate deaths are from respiratory depression. People aren’t dying instantly; they often _PASS OUT_ immediately, which is where the “needle still in the arm” incidents come from, but it’s not instant death. Of course, I’m no doctor, but I’m not one to say something in an authoritative manner w/out great confidence. (I swear that I NEVER LIE to ANYONE! Just ask the pig I’m flying on.) ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2011, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-opiate-od-death/449323/28 "2011-03-09T17:06:56Z")
Somebody slipped this thread some narcan! And it was so pleasantly on the nod, too! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Full\_Metal\_Lotus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/df705f/32.png) [@Full\_Metal\_Lotus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Full_Metal_Lotus)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2011, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-opiate-od-death/449323/29 "2011-03-09T17:32:01Z")
William S Burroughs wrote in “Junkie” about addicts who were suspected stool pigeons or otherwise troublesome to the dealers being given “hot shots” which would contain various poisons. Could this could account for the “sudden death syndrome” in some cases? Additionally the purity of street heroin/morphine varies wildly, and if a needle drug user is accustomed to dosing with drugs cut to 15% purity suddenly recieves a much purer form an accidental and catastrrophic overdose could occur. I have no cite, but remember reading that this may have been what killed Janis Joplin. Again, it wouldn’t be the instant death, however, Just the sudden unconsciousness and collapsed respriation. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2011, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-opiate-od-death/449323/30 "2011-03-09T17:46:37Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > Somebody slipped this thread some narcan! That’s okay, it won’t last long. Should I keep another dose on hand, Doctor? 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-opiate-od-death/449323.md?page=1)