In recent weeks, both social media and news outlets alike have exploded with reports on the recent deaths in the U.S. associated with a drug so terrifying even the most hardened drug dealers refuse to be involved with it: Krokodil. Several times more powerful than heroin, this synthetic substance, injected into the skin, causes a euphoric high in the user that is so powerful the user is immediately addicted. This is when the drug begins its rapid decay of the living body.
In a recent VICE documentary, a film crew entered Siberia with the intention of documenting the rapid spread of heroin throughout the region, yet encountered a far more frightening epidemic sweeping the entirety of Russia and the surrounding regions that were left in disarray following years of violent conflict. With a population inundated with heroin from the Middle East, it seems the conditions were ideal for the rise of this new super drug, as users craved a cheaper and more powerful high.
As the film crew entered the homes of addicts, it chronicled the struggles they face daily, from the immediate high often too much for the body to handle to the subsequent withdrawal occurring rapidly as the high fades (often resulting in the immediate need for the user to shoot again, as the pain becomes unbearable), to the horrifying decay of flesh and bone off the living user that results from the toxins of the injected substance. Many of the users appearing in the film had nothing but exposed bone left on their bodies, creating a patchy, reptilian-like skin from which the drug gets it’s name. All interviewed users, in addition to experts cited in news outlets including CNN, TIME and FOX News, stressed the near impossibility of stopping usage of the drug, as the body becomes completely dependent on the highs from the first use.
With the immediate-addiction and flesh-rotting properties of Krokodil, it’s hard to imagine the drug could be any more terrifying, yet it seems what has truly frightened masses around the globe is the ease of accessibility to it. Manufactured from basic household toxins including over-the-counter codeine products, paint thinner and gasoline.
Scarier still, according to a Los Angeles Times article published Oct. 11, 2013, the drug’s cheap, at-home manufacturing has led to its rise in popularity amongst users in Russia (at an estimated one million users) and now, it appears, the U.S.
Cases have been reported in multiple states, and while some remain unconfirmed to be the dreaded Krokodil, one confirmed case involved a one-month user whom had already lost 70 percent of her lower body to decay.
Krockodil presents a unique challenge for law enforcement. With ingredients that are legal and in many cases common household items, it is near impossible, as of late, to determine how to regulate and prosecute users, if at all.
Complicating a possible crackdown on the substance, many drug dealers refuse to manufacture or sell the drug, citing a) a loss of profit as the drug does rapid damage to the body, and therefore diminishes any potential client base, and b) their legitimate fear of the effects of the substance.
It seems that while conventionally viewed as lawless and uncaring, even those who subscribe to the drug trade’s basic human empathy prevents them from engaging in the brutal poisoning of the body instigated by Krokodil.
So what makes Krokodil so different from other drugs? It is arguably at the forefront of what is becoming a new breed of "super drugs," toxic chemical combinations that can be manufactured at home with everyday products and synthetic substances that push the limits of the body to highs never before explored by science.
What’s more, the at-home creation of these synthetic super drugs lends itself to a host of other horrific scenarios, including even more horrific side effects when inexperienced users make the drugs with incorrect proportions of chemicals.
