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Fentanyl, a stealth killer

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Re: Fentanyl, a stealth killer

#51

Post by aianus »

frandroid wrote: post #44
gallonofmilk wrote: post #26

I just want to say that that I lost one of my close friends Thom Simmons last April due to Fentanyl overdose. He was a young, voracious autodidact prodigy that was always way ahead of the curve especially with technology. I met him through the #django irc channel about 7 or 8 years ago when I was starting out with python and django and we developed a friendship that lasted until he overdosed on fentanyl and died in a…

Your friend and the others who died that weekend didn't "lose the battle". They were poisoned, murdered by an unscrupulous and/or clueless dealer.

> They were poisoned, murdered by an unscrupulous and/or clueless dealer.

And a government that prioritizes moralizing over helping.

Re: Fentanyl, a stealth killer

#52

Post by openasocket »

notyourloops wrote: post #31
pierrec wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have never heard of any high-profile tech leaders defending the recreational use of opioids, nor is it a popular position on HN. What's often praised, however, is education (eg. not throwing all drugs into the same bag).

One of the top posts in here is describing how to start your own opioid business. I'd consider that praise on some level, unfortunately.

Are you referring to https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12212241 ? (if not, disregard this)

It read to me like the user just said that fentanyl isn't that much cheaper than making heroin, and showed his work. They aren't actually advocating or advising for anything.

Re: Fentanyl, a stealth killer

#53

Post by brainfire »

hristov wrote: post #22
onetwotree wrote: post #14

The mention of Fentanyl here is pure clickbait. Fentanyl is pretty well known amongst opiate addicts (and has been for a while). Everyone knows it's dangerous, including dealers, who like to avoid killing their customers and catching murder charges, believe it or not. Aside from that and a bit of gateway drug BS towards the beginning, this is a solid and somewhat moving, if long, account of the standard Heroin story,…

Hate to break it to you but your dealer does not give a fuck about your health. It is extremely difficult for the police to find the dealer of a dead person, and then very difficult to prove the elements needed for a murder charge. The police do not even try to find dealers of drug deaths, unless the victim is a celebrity. Furthermore, every heroin dealer knows that each of their clients is likely to go into a downwa…

I don't know where you're from, but my personal experience in my area (Maryland, USA) is that everything in your post is incorrect.

Re: Fentanyl, a stealth killer

#54

Post by beachstartup »

frandroid wrote: post #44
gallonofmilk wrote: post #26

I just want to say that that I lost one of my close friends Thom Simmons last April due to Fentanyl overdose. He was a young, voracious autodidact prodigy that was always way ahead of the curve especially with technology. I met him through the #django irc channel about 7 or 8 years ago when I was starting out with python and django and we developed a friendship that lasted until he overdosed on fentanyl and died in a…

Your friend and the others who died that weekend didn't "lose the battle". They were poisoned, murdered by an unscrupulous and/or clueless dealer.

in my humble opinion that dealer happens to be big pharma.

Re: Fentanyl, a stealth killer

#55

Post by MichaelGG »

fmihaila wrote: post #30
milesf wrote: post #21

Sad that the message of this piece will likely be discounted and discredited. It amazes me the blasé attitudes towards drugs in the tech world. Hearing even high-profile tech leaders extoll the 'virtues' of getting high while ignoring the huge toll it takes on individuals and their families seems selfish to me.

I don't remember ever hearing a 'high-profile tech leader' extoll the virtues of getting high on opiates. Yes, Steve Jobs talked about his experience with LSD in positive terms, but LSD is as similar to fentanyl as Advil is to Viagra or alcohol is to coffee. They really have nothing in common other than being labeled 'drugs', which at this point is a term just as empty of meaning as 'chemicals'.

FWIW Advil and other OTC painkillers (NSAIDs) cause almost as many deaths as opiates. If opiates were readily legally available in proper dosages and cheap prices, NSAIDs would almost certainly pass them in harm.

Re: Fentanyl, a stealth killer

#56

Post by gravypod »

DanBC wrote: post #37
RankingMember wrote: post #36

This was a well-written story but I could've done without: A. The "MARIJUANA, THAT DEVIL WEED, STARTED HIS DESCENT INTO HELL" routine. and B. The "truth" anti-drug ad campaign-style video overlays

A ridiculous over-reaction to a bit of biographical detail.

I'd not call this an over reaction. This part of the story, no matter how true, will be used to smear pot users in the future.

People will look at the original drug as the cause when in reality there are probably many more possible things that could be associated with the cause.

This sort of thing becomes played out after time. "It's not the person's fault! It's that they used this devil plant"

Re: Fentanyl, a stealth killer

#57

Post by MichaelGG »

imaginenore wrote: post #43
bbctol wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're right, that does sound cruel. Moreover, the effects of addiction, the way choices made in childhood or under duress can affect the brain well into adulthood, and the fact that unregulated drugs sold can be far more dangerous than believed (you know, what the article was about) make this a hardly tenable position. "The dangers are generally known" is only said about opiate addiction by someone who doesn't know…

Are you saying opiate addiction dangers are not known? Sounds like you're the one who doesn't know much. Even kids know drugs are bad for you. And the article is about the adults.

This is not a danger of opiate addiction. It is a danger of an unregulated black market selling improperly marked medicine.

Hint: If you accidentally take 50x the amount of Tylenol you intended to take, you're probably going to die.

Re: Fentanyl, a stealth killer

#58

Post by MichaelGG »

rmac wrote: post #15
pizza wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many (if not like more than half, I forget the statistic..) of those overdose deaths result from combining a GABAergic like alcohol or especially benzodiazepines with an opioid.

I wonder why mixing cns depressants is so common? Is it because opioids are so expensive / hard to get, and benzos/alcohol easier to get and cheaper? Or is it simply a better feeling mixing them...

There's also no literature on the subject. So if you need benzos and opiates, there's zero guidance on what's safe. Just "we don't know, we don't measure, don't do it". In other words, abstinence.

Some people take them to increase the nod. Others might have insomnia and don't want to take so much opiates to really sleep.

Edit: And there's obviously some information on this, somewhere because e.g. IV opiate+midazolam is quite a common thing. [In a 3rd world pharmacy, I was actually offered liquid midazolam as a sleep aid when I complained long-lasting benzos were too long-lasting and asked for a medium-duration sleep aid.]

Re: Fentanyl, a stealth killer

#59

Post by notyourloops »

openasocket wrote: post #52
notyourloops wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the top posts in here is describing how to start your own opioid business. I'd consider that praise on some level, unfortunately.

Are you referring to https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12212241 ? (if not, disregard this) It read to me like the user just said that fentanyl isn't that much cheaper than making heroin, and showed his work. They aren't actually advocating or advising for anything.

Starting material, precursors, cost analysis, and a darknet market for sales. You can say they're not advocating or advising for anything, but they just did to anyone who could be interested, from start to completed product to where to sell it.

Re: Fentanyl, a stealth killer

#60

Post by phdp »

beachstartup wrote: post #54
frandroid wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your friend and the others who died that weekend didn't "lose the battle". They were poisoned, murdered by an unscrupulous and/or clueless dealer.

in my humble opinion that dealer happens to be big pharma.

In this case, probably not. From the article:

> Although it is legally prescribed for pain sufferers, such as those with cancer, almost all of the street-level fentanyl is illicitly produced in places such as China. A kilogram of fentanyl purchased from a lab in China for $3,000 to $5,000 can generate $1.5 million in revenue on the street, according to the DEA.

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