Krokodil

[tantric]

Originally Posted by J. Edward Tremlett

Krokodil is Breaking Brain.

I have longed for a drug to come along that really screws people up externally. This fits the bill nicely.

Uh, why? I feel nothing but pity for those people. The drug isn't hurting them, the war on (some) drugs is. If they could just buy pure morphine, they'd be a lot better off. Besides, alcohol and smoking cause gross physical damage already - or do you just want them to look hellish?

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Purple Haze

The science in _Breaking Bad_ was done by University of Oklahoma chemistry professor Donna Nelson PhD. There are many radically different methods for synthesizing meth, every process shown in the show is a step from one of those methods. They mix and match steps from different methods, and depict them out of order, so that the show is not a tutorial.

IOW, the end result is about as silly as calling a cat Neutron 'Because he is so positive!'.

I also remember something about their 'cleaner' drug having a colour which clearly indicates presence of impurities of some sort. (Again, not a chemist - just saying what I heard.)

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by J. Edward Tremlett

Krokodil is Breaking Brain.

I have longed for a drug to come along that really screws people up externally. This fits the bill nicely.

Yeah, I'm with tantric here. You are aware that Krokodil is real, yes? Heroin wasn't already killing addicts fast enough for you?

[tantric]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

IOW, the end result is about as silly as calling a cat Neutron 'Because he is so positive!'.

I also remember something about their 'cleaner' drug having a colour which clearly indicates presence of impurities of some sort. (Again, not a chemist - just saying what I heard.)

I fail to see how he could avoid getting a racemic product with a synth using methylamine - meaning a very complicated step to separate out the d-meth AND wasting half of it. You're right, though - crystallization usually removes the by products, unless they are also amines.

I stopped watching "Fringe" after the episode in which a flu virus grew to giant size and chased people around. Then they killed it with a decongestant and I tuned out. Really, people?

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by tantric

I stopped watching "Fringe" after the episode in which a flu virus grew to giant size and chased people around. Then they killed it with a decongestant and I tuned out. Really, people?

You mean you watched the pilot/first episode without tuning out the sciency part of the brain? ^_^

[Anders]

Originally Posted by tantric

Uh, why? I feel nothing but pity for those people. The drug isn't hurting them, the war on (some) drugs is. If they could just buy pure morphine, they'd be a lot better off. Besides, alcohol and smoking cause gross physical damage already - or do you just want them to look hellish?

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Yeah, I'm with tantric here. You are aware that Krokodil is real, yes? Heroin wasn't already killing addicts fast enough for you?

Sign me up for this view as well. These are people and dserve our compassion.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by J. Edward Tremlett

Krokodil is Breaking Brain.

I have longed for a drug to come along that really screws people up externally. This fits the bill nicely.

Originally Posted by tantric

Uh, why? I feel nothing but pity for those people. The drug isn't hurting them, the war on (some) drugs is. If they could just buy pure morphine, they'd be a lot better off. Besides, alcohol and smoking cause gross physical damage already - or do you just want them to look hellish?

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Yeah, I'm with tantric here. You are aware that Krokodil is real, yes? Heroin wasn't already killing addicts fast enough for you?

Originally Posted by Asta Kask

Sign me up for this view as well. These are people and dserve our compassion.

Okay, I'm probably too detached to join the Compassion camp, but I'm certainly very puzzled and slightly disturbed by anyone cheering at yet another way people can suffer.

I also don't quite get the connection between Breaking Bad, Breaking Brain (?), and longing for an externally screwing-up drug.

[Tomsdad]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Okay, I'm probably too detached to join the Compassion camp, but I'm certainly very puzzled and slightly disturbed by anyone cheering at yet another way people can suffer.

I also don't quite get the connection between Breaking Bad, Breaking Brain (?), and longing for an externally screwing-up drug.

Personally I'm hoping he meant:

"great an over the top drug that seems more at home in a fictional dystopian cyberpunk future, but that I can now name check in my contemporary setting without appearing to be unrealistic"


I hope!

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by tantric

Uh, why? I feel nothing but pity for those people. The drug isn't hurting them, the war on (some) drugs is.

That's a step too far. The drug arguably isn't hurting them a lot more than some perfectly legal things would, but opiates aren't harmless. If nothing else the rate of lethal overdoses even among patients with legal prescriptions is probably comparable to that of alcohol.

[tantric]

Originally Posted by malloyd

That's a step too far. The drug arguably isn't hurting them a lot more than some perfectly legal things would, but opiates aren't harmless. If nothing else the rate of lethal overdoses even among patients with legal prescriptions is probably comparable to that of alcohol.

The studies I've read (many) suggest alcohol and heroin are neck in neck for harm, and tobacco is worse than meth. The question is: how would legal heroin compare to legal alcohol? I have a friend who's been taking 120mg of methadone (5mg being a normal dose) every day for years. She's FAR more functional than my alcoholic ex-bf, who routinely drives drunk, gets in fights and vomits all over everything. Then again, the whole discussion changes radically when you learn about ibogaine - and then learn there's a drug with nearly identically properties sold OTC in most of the world.

This is interesting, but way off topic now - move?