Please read this before you try fentanyl for the first time

Firstly I will be frank and honest and say that I do not condone the use of fentanyl as a recreational drug. It has found its way into fake opiate pills and this is a real worry. I have nothing against those who choose to use it or those willing to try it, my only concern is the hidden dangers behind this very potent drug.

I will re-invent the wheel by stating what I hope all opiate users know but people interested in trying them might not. A single therapeutic/analgesic dose of any opiate or opioid can can cause immediate fatal respiratory depression in people who are overly sensitive to opiates.

With fentanyl even the most tolerant of opiates users are equally at risk of this happening if they take an increased dose. The relationship between OD risk and fent dose is not linear. There is a sudden jump somewhere in the dosing for each individual. Most will never find out what that dose is until they take that knowledge with them to the grave or get urgent treatment with narcan.

If you are thinking about trying fentanyl for the first time then please ensure the following

1.Find out if you are opiate sensitive by comparing the side-effects that you encounter with other users of similar gender and body composition (i.e. muscle mass, not fat) who have taken the same dose. If you are prone to more side-effects at lower doses fentanyl is not for you

2.If you have come off opiates for a while and are getting back into things do not start with fentanyl. Make sure that you have been taking at least a minimal of 30 - 60 mg oxy per day for 1 week or equivalent

3.Know your fentanyl agonists. Although often used to heighten the effects for veterans to a newbie using agonists is not wise. Things that can enhance fent are some antibiotics, antifungals, heart rate controlling medication and grapefruit juice. Just one glass is all it takes to initiate the interaction

4.Around 3% of people taking fent will drop their heat rate below 50 beats per minute and this could lead to low blood pressure and fainting. At this stage which can be very early on it would be entirely reasonable to reverse with narcan and abort. This is a sign of serious fent sensitivity

5.Life threatening respiratory depression can occur with relatively small doses of fent if other respiratory depressants are used of which the most common are benzos and alcohol. This applies to both to those who have taken fent before and even more so in those who haven't

6.ALWAYS HAVE SEVERAL DOSES OF NARCAN AND A BUDDY WHO CAN RECOGNIZE SIGNS OF OD IF YOU TAKE FENT. The need for buddy is explained next and it is important that they aren't high as a kite as well!

7.A fent OD is a medical nightmare. The rapid mechanism of action and onset means that ODs are sudden and instant. Respiratory depression or arrest allows the build up of CO2 in the blood which in turn enhances the effect of the fentanyl. Some ODs therefore maybe to far gone for treatment with narcan alone and require oxygen supplementation i.e. call a paramedic

8.The half life of fent is almost double to triple the half life of narcan which only works fully for around 30 - 45 minutes. A repeat OD is highly likely so your buddy needs to keep an eye on you for a minimum of 3 hours

9.Very rarely treatment with narcan can cause other detrimental effects to body parts like the heart, so complaints of chest pain or tightness requires escalation to ER medical treatment

10.Do not take fent if you have a bad chest or symptomatic chronic lung problems such as asthma

11.One man/womans nodding can be anothers OD. Do not take chances. Early signs include less than 10 respirations per minute, sighing type breathing where breaths are separated by long pauses. Counting respiratory rate is fairly easy unless your buddy has taken an acid trip and lost all sense of time. Once 10 resps/minute or less has been reached CO2 retention begins and the cascade of enhancing the fent begins. Best to reverse and abort at this stage

TL;DR Fentanyl is a dangerous drug but if you really have to play pharmaceutical Russian roulette the above might help dodge a bullet.


Comments


[40 Points] kdfkdslkflksd:

I recommend opiate users stay very far away from fent. It might seems like a cheap alternative, but to the inexperienced it can be DEADLY!! You may think you have the correct amount measured out, or that one more knife tip will certainly get you to that next level, but in reality your about to O.D. You might not know it, or you don't care to know it, because your all high and fucked, but you gonna die, just like all the kids you hear about on the news. Next thing you know your crawling on the bathroom floor trying to catch a breath, trying not to go to sleep, panicking, wondering if you should try and get help, but you feel to good. Maybe someone will find you and phone an ambulance-- but probably not because you locked yourself in thinking you can sleep it off. Sorry mate but its all over and your just another statistic.


[39 Points] MDMangel:

Every thing I've ever heard or read about this substance sounds like a nightmare. You hit the nail on the head when you called it Russian roulette. Thanks for the insightful and thoughtful information. Never get bent on fent!!


[12 Points] None:

heart rate below 50 beats per minute

I am not interested in opiates, however I find this puzzling.

I have a resting heart rate about 55 bpm. I am not a super athlete, but I do run a lot.

Why is 50 bpm such a big deal on fentanyl. What problem does it cause?


[12 Points] Buriedeep:

This needs to be at the top of /DNM for fucking sure. The amount of people I've seen asking stupid questions about fentanyl is rediculous. It's not a safe substance, and there is such a fine line between recreational use and death. Plus, just because the Darknet Markets allow us to get rarer chemicals to our doorstep, doesn't mean that we should indulge in them without proper care, research and procaution. It's scary somtimes.


[13 Points] robbyguns:

Do not use fent at all unless it is patches used properly that are ordered for you by a MD. I lost my wife last year to fent. She was a functional addict. She was very educated, a nurse, and taught pharmacology in a nursing program. There is no good way, without a full laboratory style equipment, to measure a dose correctly if you inject it. Sooner or later it will kill you. I am a medical professional as well and found her. I had narcan which i used. started CPR, got an airway in her and an IV prior to medics arriving at our home and it was too late, she was gone. Not only did she leave me, but also our 10 year old little girl, its been a difficult road for both of us. Consider the path of destruction you could leave from essentially playing with your life please.


[8 Points] GodILoveCoffee:

I think this drug is terrible for recreational use, but, sincerely, thank you for doing this. Some people will inevitably decide to explore this chemical, and the information you've given here could save lives. Respect.


[7 Points] None:

If anyone knows of a list of vendors that are selling fent presses they should make a thread for it. Might save a few lives.


[5 Points] GrandWizardsLair:

Thank you, /u/harmreductionforall, for a very useful and much needed post. Fentanyl and fentanyl analogues remain widely available on the Darknet, so the Grand Wizard assumes people are buying them. Let's hope at least some of those people read this information and take it to heart: it really could mean the difference between life and death.


[4 Points] Vendor_BBMC:

There are very few fentanyl deaths compared to heroin. Very, very, very few. I don't imagine that dosing is difficult once you've diluted the fent you purchased to it's final volume with antibacterial water

I'm not a fan, personally, of opiates, but lots of people love 'em. Fentanyl is a perfectly good, valid one, and all this "have a sitter with an ambulance nearby" stuff equally applies to all opiates, but I doubt anybody actually does.

Acetyl fentanyl is easier to handle because its less-potent, but even-this I recommend you injest by using it in an E-cig (this does work, I made one for a heroin addict once.

If you need narcan three times for a fent overdose, think how many times you need it for the longer-acting heroin? Its one of the reasons that people OD on a coke / heroin speedball when the coke wears off. Meth makes a safer speedball with heroin, but maybe coke is best with fent.


[3 Points] aboutthednm:

Narcan won't save you from fentanyl.


[3 Points] fentanylispoison:

http://www.syracuse.com/crime/index.ssf/2016/02/lethal_heroin_batch_has_killed_23_in_buffalo_over_past_two_weeks.html


[3 Points] ATrueLady:

Thank you for this post. My high school sweetheart (whom i had to part ways with due to his drug addiction, although we were still very close and I cared for him very much) died about 2 years ago from a Fent/heroin OD. It was one of the most heartbreaking things, watching how his family dealt with it and is still dealing with it. His mother, a lovely lady, seems as if she is broken forever. Same with his brother, the one who survived because he took less of the drug and did not OD, but found him dead the next morning when he woke up. His brother took enough that he was knocked out for so long that by the time he woke up my high school sweetheart was already in rigor mortis. I can only imagine what that must be like.

And the worst part? They were told that it was just heroin, not fent laced with heroin even though the dealer knew my ex liked to push his limits on drugs, and also knew it was fent with heroin. Makes me so angry. Sorry for the rant, a little unrelated to the thread, I actually came to this sub for other reasons and saw this and wanted to post. But yeah, stay away from this shit. I have seen my ex take ungodly amounts of drugs before, his tolerance was through the roof to opiates and it killed him still.


[3 Points] opiatesownme:

Fentanyl ruined my life. I was addicted to smoking it/snorting it for under half a year and my life went down the drain. Heroin is a cakewalk compared to it. Became like crack to me and ruined my tolerance to opiates forever. Also caused me to OD 4 times, die for a couple minutes twice, and lose the control of both arms temporarily because of the nerves dying after being knocked out on fent.


[2 Points] whoamiamwho:

Man I don't know why people even bother knowingly using shit like this recreationally. The only reason I'd ever use this is if I wanted to off myself.


[2 Points] UncleRays:

Yo OP thank you for the type you spent on this. I learned a thing or two and im sure many others did as well


[2 Points] toochill700:

A friend of mine just recently ODd on fent. The shit is seriously scary. Thanks for your post OP. Stay safe everyone.


[2 Points] None:

[deleted]


[2 Points] dandydaniels:

When I finally hit bottom and had had enough of heroin - A self induced Naltrexone withdrawal one evening, which was my last night with opiates in my system ever.. shocked my body so badly that I now have Adrenal Fatigue syndrome and Hypothyroid. You don't want to stress your body that much. So don't OD. It's bad to die but living with the side effects that appear 5 years later are pretty shitty too.


[2 Points] None:

A hospital will start you at 50ug if youre not opiate tolerant. Thats less than youd take of lsd, and can fuck you up if youre sensitive. I highly reccomend that as a starting dose...... Fuck oding....


[2 Points] mtspirate:

Now I'm afraid of trying these fent sprays I just ordered. Damn, 100 bucks wasted now because this is really scary. I have a rather high tolorence to opiates but damn, I don't know what to do now.


[2 Points] Hansbald:

I never understood why someone would willingly take this, just do fucking heroin for christ sake


[1 Points] octomarvel:

Goddamn... It beats narcan? I had a friend who od'd on some China white heroin in the 90's n narcan brought him back to life. Fentanyl is literally trying to kill you, multiple times.

Ain't gonna lie though, kinda wanna try it.

=)


[1 Points] BudgetBuyer:

Thanks for the tips time to shoot some Fent up the D-hole.


[1 Points] None:

Hell,who needs to source Ricin when this shits freely available!


[1 Points] SickleInThePickle:

You're doing good work, OP. Thanks.


[1 Points] VeggieVet:

50 bpm seems pretty fast to be concerning. My resting heart rate is right around 50 bpm


[1 Points] None:

ALWAYS HAVE SEVERAL DOSES OF NARCAN AND A BUDDY WHO CAN RECOGNIZE SIGNS OF OD IF YOU TAKE FENT

My knowledge of opiates is based upon movies like Trainspotting. Is it common for people doing opiates to have a sitter?


[1 Points] Odrow7:

Thank you /u/harmreductionforall for such a well informed and helpful post. I am not an opiate user myself but I have friends that are and I will have to show them this post just to try and educate them a little more on what they are dealing with if someone were to cut their dope with fent. This post has a lot of potential to do some real good in an awesome community well done.


[1 Points] JorDanisREAL:

sounds fun


[1 Points] DeadEyesX:

Fentynal is a great drug and I had no problems having an 8 day high without even knowing what I had found in the garbage bag of an eviction The guy had lung cancer..

I honestly don't know if they still make the patches in squares that feel like Crest White Strips but that's how I used what I had and it was probably the best drug I ever had at letting me control my high. I would cut a little square off, stick it under my tongue and feel great if I felt too high I just took it out and in 30 I was back to not feeling too high.

The drug is fine and it's only dangerous unless your one of those people that measures what they are taking in piles and just guesses amounts and then sees what happens. This is not a drug to take a see what happens because you won't be seeing anything you will be dead. Some people just refuse to believe a small dose will get you high so that is where the danger lies.


[1 Points] Sentazar:

People should keep in mind this drug is also routinely cut into coke.


[1 Points] mtspirate:

Is Acetylfentanyl safer? What would a good starting dose be for someone with a moderate opiate tolorence? Trying to be safer here. Thanks!!


[1 Points] None:

Can someone ELI5 what is the preferred method of abusing fentanyl and why? I have been prescribed the patches in the past but had a horrible allergic reaction to the adhesive. Do people cut open the patches and use that? Like just suck it out ? I feel like using fentanyl from a pharmacy would be safest?


[-2 Points] None:

Why is this just limited to fent? Why not all opiates?