Yes, nephro, I saw that thread and your posts, but for the life of me, I can't remember all you said (and you put so much work into it). I do remember the words "tobacco, carcinogens or carcinogenic, and cells.

Thanks you for posting the 20 Most Dangerous Drugs in Britian; did not see that, since I joined after then.
Also nephro thank you for being the catalyst in my journey to quit smoking...it's been quite a trial, but really worth it.

Ahhh, reminds me of the 80's when I was doing an internship at a company called Dover Textiles. The owner and president, Ben Dover (yes, that was really his name), had expensive brass spittoons all over his elaborate corporate office. Never once saw the man miss a spittoon. He’d walk by one as far as 25 feet and spit right into the things.

They actually had a member of staff employed full-time to ensure the spittoons were empied and the brass was polished.

So you've done it? Brilliant!

i had a nice university professor who smoked a pipe continuously. He died of mouth cancer, a terrible way to die. I think smoking is really dangerous and the only reason it is allowed is because of profits for tobacco companies.

That is a very intersting list and at first I wondered why hydrocodone wasn't on the list, then I remembered it isn't made in Great Briton.. I do have one question however, why would heroin be number one when it is legal in (at least England) Heroin is a very safe medication when given as a prescription if used as prescribed.. I saw a movie called Candy and a chemist acually made heroin from morphine.

Hottie

all those drugs are good except ive never tried khat and solvents were teenage things

Pure heroin (diamorphine) as obtained from a pharmaceutical company is very safe when taken as prescribed, because you know that you are taking diamorphine and diamorphine alone, and you know the exact dose. It is a white crystalline substance that dissolves in water to produce a clear, colourless solution.

Street heroin is generally less than 10% pure; the rest of the stuff is bulked up with battery acid, ethylcodeine or other weak by-products from the manufacturing process, dust out of a vacuum cleaner bag, coffee powder, gravy powder, chalk, aspirin, and probably anything the dealer can think of. It is a nasty brown colour, and has to be melted to be injected.

But sometimes, street heroin can be unusually pure, or contains fentanyl, which is when the addict overdoses. Each dose is a guess, and the useless stuff is sent to every cell in the body. Poor injection technique can also lead to local and systemic infections.

Solvents are often the first choice of substance abuse among those much younger than teenagers given the variety of substances that can be "huffed" and the relative ease of availability.

I recall being around 8 or 9, desperate to escape a dismal reality and hung with a group into huffing.

Somehow, thankfully, I had just a little sense and passed on the brown paper sack being passed around.

------

After a few months it became quite apparent I had made one wise decision in life anyway.

Typical conversation with a huffer:

"Hey Johnny, you know who I saw, what's his name. Man, what is that guy's name we hang with?"

"Um, I'm Patient, not Johnny"

"Yeah, Steve, that's right. What was I saying? I was just telling you something, man, what was it?"

"Um, I'm Patient, you were telling me you ran into someone, recall who?"

"That's right Jose, I saw whats-his-name. You know what he told me?"

"I'm Patient, but no I don't know what this person told you."

"Man, Jimmy, I wish I could remember, man. Like I was just thinking about it when I saw you here, Gabe."
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Really, huffing should top the list given the youthful demographic whose brain cells are forever lost by the quadrillions!

I suppose it's not that addictive because after a while these guys seemed to forget that they "huffed" --- Tragic.

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Assuming these guys lived to their teenage years, they were destined for l-o-n-g stretches in the penal system, generally for quite poorly thought out crimes.

I recall one trio thought they'd make some quick $$$ by kidnapping a guy for $500.00 ransom (to be split 3 ways). As they hadn't thought out the 'pickup' part well, it led to 25 year federal prison bids.

Another guy killed a storeowner in an argument over littering at the age of 15.

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Huffing is "popular" worldwide, often among the most destitute of youth yet we hear little about it. And it's frankly the most dangerous threat to young people.

The cynical part of me wonders if society turns a blind eye to huffing and concentrates on lesser threats that present potential dangers to middle class young people. After all, huffing does help "thin the herd" of so many least likely to succeed in life anyway..

patient2all

Thanks for your answer. I am a recovering heroin addict, so I know too well about the dangers of it, especially this new black tar, and I would bet that there is a lot more [censored] in that stuff than eiher of us know about. I have had friends OD on this new fentanyl, and for using needles, I have the battle scars to remind me everyday how lucky I am to still be among the living...
I juust think that it is a shame that diamorphine isn't legal here in the States. I know how much it helps cancer patients in England, and why it is still illegsl jere is a mystery to me..
I do have one question for you. Since legal heroin is available to the population in England, do you have a big illegal heroin problem or is it mostlu pharmacuticals?

Hottie

We have very little prescription med abuse, considering. The biggest case I can remember involved a drug called Diconal - you can Google it to find out what happened. But besides that, there are a lot of benzo addicts just from legit scripts. Pills doing them not much harm, but not much good.

The heroin that is abused on the streets here is not diverted from legitimate hospital use. Anyone who got hold of that would get a fortune for it. But street heroin is a big problem; the methods to aid this problem involve pharmacies selling £1 "Packs" containing Water for Injections, citric acid, swabs, and microfine syringes which can be exchanged.

Then, of course, there's free Subutex/Suboxone.

But yes, every doctor in the UK will carry diamorphine in his bag, and it saves many lives of heart-attack victims.

Perhaps your government sees no point in introducing diamorphine for terminal patients because of the recently-introduced synthetic opioids such as fentanyl derivatives. Then again, the UK NHS system is cost-driven, and diamorphine is as cheap as chips. It is ideal for subcutaneous infusion via a syringe-driver.

"But yes, every doctor in the UK will carry diamorphine in his bag, and it saves many lives of heart-attack victims."

Nephro, I am a surviver of a major heart-attack, so this statement is of great interest to me.
Could you explain the mechanizim by which diamorphine can save the life of a heart-attack victim ?


When I had my heart-attack, I woke up with all the classic symptoms = car on chest, both arms hurting, nausea, sweating, etc.

I ask for something for pain, as soon as I got to the ER.
They told me they could not give me anything, till the proceedure was finished.
The proceedure being, cath lab, ballon, stent, etc.
The "proceedure" was painfull, on top of the pain I was already feeling.
As soon as the doctor was done, they hit me up with a shot of morphine.
In one instant, all pain was gone and I felt like walking home !
This did not happen, of course :>)

I'm just curious how diamorphine would have been used in my case, if I were in the UK ?

Thank You for any answer, if you read this !

Diamorphine (like morphine) has a haemodynamic effect, dilating blood vessels, hence the feeling of warmth it gives. This helps blood flow, and lessens the amount of damage (death) of heart muscle. Blood carries vital oxygen.

In addition, it alleviates the feeling of doom and impending death, as well as relieving the pain very quickly. This in itself can make a vital difference in the overall outcome.

This program is a bit of a joke, I'm afraid. It looks suspiciously like one I saw several years ago, even down to the same quotes and melodramatic pronouncements. I remember seeing shows like this every few years on Brit TV, growing up in the UK. It just looks like hastily cobbled-together sensationalism to me.

The bit about buprenorphine (what that is doing in there at all is anyone's guess) is literally about 30 seconds long and all they have to say is that it can cause 'euphoria and hallucinations'. Huh? So can dozens of far more dangerous drugs, if abused. Incredible.

Then we have the bit about cannabis, which starts off with a dour-looking woman warning us that we should never think of cannabis as not being a dangerous drug. All it goes on to say is that in some people and in large enough doses, it can cause unwanted psychological effects - again, nothing anyone with any knowledge at all about drugs didn't already know.

I agree. Considering that the drugs were placed "taking into account harm to the body, addictiveness and effects on society", benzodiazepines should be nowhere near tobacco. There are many elderly people in the country who are addicted to benzodiazepines, but they don't die from them or affect society in any way I can think of.

No offense, yes American tv is awful for drama, but it seems Brit tv follows very, very closely behind.

I watched a Special i think it was from BBC, on the Concord crash, on youtube. It was so over sensationalized it just made me sick. The way they just skim over the victims and just try to wow and entertain you with repetitious specialfx, and back it up with questionable eyewitness accounts.

But what else is new journalism lol.