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.
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.)
Nope, wasn’t mixing up opioids with barbiturates, rather I was responding to:
Should have included the quoted post.
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.
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?
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.
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.)
Somebody slipped this thread some narcan! And it was so pleasantly on the nod, too!
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.
That’s okay, it won’t last long. Should I keep another dose on hand, Doctor?