Desomorphine is a derivative of morphine first synthesized in the US in the early 1930s. Originally viewed as a potential alternative to morphine, the compound was found to have a significantly shorter half life (the effects last four hours at the most), and so was for the most part neglected by the medical community. Recently though, desomorphine, nicknamed “crocodile,” has become popular in Russia, where it is manufactured (very cheaply) with over-the-counter codeine in a reaction similar to that used for cooking meth. The results are apparently rather gruesome:
A number of chemical substances are used in the homemade production of desomorphine. These include industrial acids, alkalis, and organic solvents (petrol, etc.). In most cases industrial quality chemicals are used, rather than purified forms intended for consumption.
This mixture of compounds, used in the process of making desomorphine, and not filtered out later, often contains high concentrations of iodine, which disrupts the endocrine system and causes muscular disorders; phosphorus, which attacks bone tissue; and dangerous admixtures of heavy metals such as iron, zinc, lead and antimony, which cause disorders of the nervous system, mineral imbalances, and inflammation of the liver and kidneys.
Drug addiction often follows the first dose. Desomorphine users suffer from an acute deterioration in their general health, including a weakened immune system and failing liver. Their circulation is so effected that their limbs gradually wither and die. Non-healing ulcers appear on the body and a person literally rots alive. Veins located near the injection sites “burn up.”
This information is coming from the Russian state media, so it should be taken with a proper degree of wariness. There is, however, no doubt that homemade/crudely manufactured pharmaceuticals are often less than safe, and this situation is not unique to Russia; the majority of heroin overdoses in the United States are a result of reckless/malicious cuts such a fentanyl, and any street dose is liable to contain unwanted chemicals that are best not put into veins.
If heroin and other such narcotics were legally available there would be little more risk of overdose than with any other legal drug (and significantly less than with alcohol). The state would not be faced with horrible drug epidemics, hospitals would not devote mass resources to treating overdoses and addictions, and no one would have to worry about their limbs rotting off.
Echt, 
. Ik laat het topic wel verwijderen. 
