Expert Warns ‘No Other Drug Will Kill You as Fast’ as Krokodil, as it Emerges the Skin-Eating Drug May Have Claimed its First U.S. Victim
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It is possibly the most deadliest drug to ever hit American streets.
Originating in Russia ten years ago, Krokodil is a cheaper and more horrific version of heroin, which eats flesh from the inside and users bodies start to rot leaving addicts with reptilian skin.
The homemade concoction contains a mix of codeine, gasoline, paint thinner, and alcohol and costs $8 per hit on the street. The average life expectancy of Krokodil users is two to three years.
Now with reports that the drug has been found in Utah, Arizona and Illinois recently, it appears it may have claimed its first U.S. victim.
The Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics is investigating the deaths of two Oklahoma men who are linked to the drug, KSWO reported. One of those men is 33-year-old Justin McGree, who died last year. McGee’s friend Chelle Fancher said McGee had taken Krokodil.
“(His) skin was missing,” she told KOCO Oklahoma City. “The doctors say it ate him from the inside out. It wasn’t until the next day that they told us that is was Krokodil meth.”
If this turns out to be correct, then the drug has been available earlier in America than previously thought, but it appears it is only just coming to mainstream attention.
So much so, Krokodil victims in the Chicago area have started to speak out about the drug’s horrifying physical effects.
“It almost starts like a burn from a cigarette,” Amber Neitzel, 26, told ABC’s WLS-TV. “It starts purple and then goes into a blister after five or six days.”
She and her sister Angie Neitzel, 29, told the station they are two of five victims who have been treated at Presence St. Joseph Medical Center in Joilet, Illinois. They believe it’s possible that they have been injecting the drug into their bodies for more than a year, thinking it was heroin.
“Amber stopped shooting in her legs a little over a month ago, because it was making black spots everywhere,” their mother Kimberly Neitzel, also a heroin addict, told WBBM News Radio. Angie has just been released from the hospital after undergoing emergency surgery on her legs last week, while Amber is suffering gangrene infections in both legs and arms.
Dr. Reza Mohammad, CEO Founder Inspire Malibu Drug Treatment, says that once users get addicted to this drug, there’s no going back….there’s only certain excruciating death.
Here he explains why this drug is so deadly:
Dr. Reza Mohammad, CEO Founder Inspire Malibu Drug Treatment, warns taking the drug is like having a suicide wish
CelebZter: There are some cases of the use of Krokodil emerging in the U.S, are you frightened that it will become the drug of choice?
Dr. Reza Mohammad: I really hope not, we have better treatment available for patients who are opiate dependent. For example medical management with Suboxone and Methadone and psychosocial treatment. My fear is the “poor people” who are heroin dependent can turn to this deadly drug. Rich educated people aren’t using Krokodil, they can afford other forms of drugs.
CelebZter: Is its appeal that it is 10 times cheaper than heroin and users can whip it up in their own home?
Dr. Reza Mohammad: Yes. That’s why you can say it’s “poor people’s” drug.
CelebZter: Is it as addictive as heroin?
Dr. Reza Mohammad: Krokodil is several times more addictive than heroin.
CelebZter: Is it true the effects are worse than heroin as it causes blood vessels to burst, leaving skin green and scaly and eventually causing gangrene?
Dr. Reza Mohammad: The effects are much more dangerous than that because it effects all your organs and people can then die from multi-organ failure.
CelebZter: How hard is it to be get off the drug?
Dr. Reza Mohammad: It’s very addictive, withdrawal symptoms can last weeks.
CelebZter: Even if users do get off it, are many still going to have health problems and disfigured forever?
Dr. Reza Mohammad: Toxic deposits stay in the brain, liver, lungs and other organs if the addict has used Krokodil for 3 to 4 months so the effects are irreversible and users will die within a year from organ failure. This is a slow painful suicide.
CelebZter: And your last words on the drug?
Dr. Reza Mohammad: Stay away from this suicide drug, no other drug will kill you as fast as Krokodil. Only early intervention within first 2 months of use can be treatable otherwise it is a death wish.
