Scary drugs in Russia

by Mike
(Chofu)

When I think about living in Russia, I always get this mental image of this war-torn country with rundown buildings without electricity and other things we take for granted every day.

Of course, I know that even though some parts of Russia are poor, my image is very skewed, but for some parts it isn't so far off. I remember watching a documentary about drug users in Russia and it was specifically about this new drug called krokodil. A lot of people use it because it is cheaper than other drugs, but the problem is that to make it cheaper, it is often mixed with very dangerous items such as battery acid or gasoline! This mix causes the users' skin to get scaly, much like a crocodile (which the name is derived from) or even rot.

This drug is made from codeine which was a product in a lot of over-the-counter drugs in Russia until 2012, which is one reason why the drug is so common. This law has since been changed though, so hopefully the use of it will somewhat decline, even though I think it probably won't. People are already addicted to it, and the damage has been done, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't try to reduce it as much as possible though!

If you look at pictures of people damaged by the drug, it is extremely disgusting. I wanted to add a picture of it at first to show it, but it is a bit hard to look at, so if you want to look at it, just search for krokodil drug.

When you look at the pictures, the human aspect of it both fascinates and disgusts me. I can't understand the mindset of people who accept the risk of causing body parts to rot off in order to get a cheaper high.

I have had a lot of privileges in life, so I can't judge people who do it, but it is still hard for me to fathom how bad you must have it to need to escape from your reality so bad that you are willing to risk body parts.

Hopefully they will manage to combat this drug somehow, as it is very scary. Even more scarier though is that it is spreading with cases being found in America as well.