Flesh-Eating Drug Krokodil Hits America, Not As Scary As It Looks

Have you seen the new flesh-eating drug Krokodil sweeping the nation as two “cases” of the substance appeared in Arizona for this first time this week?

If you’re seeing Krokodil pics for the first time, the flesh-eating drug indeed looks like a nightmare come to life. Alleged users of Krokodil look like horror movie extras, blackened skin hanging from areas of former health or limb — if any skin at all remains. Some images just show a bare bone, almost cartoonishly, as if the flesh between the hand and elbow were cleanly meat cleavered away.

However, Krokodil’s flesh-eating drug properties are not new or news, in as much as firstly, the images you’re seeing are not from Arizona. They’re from Russia, where Krokodil has been an issue for many years now.

Secondly, the images being passed around to warn of the flesh-eating drug’s horrible effects are also quite old — we’ve been seeing the very same Krokodil images surfacing now and again repeatedly for years now. The images are shocking and horrible, but it’s also not something that is posing a significant threat to America’s kids.

Why do we know this, and what is Krokodil anyway? It’s actually something you’ve probably already taken willingly, even if you don’t use street drugs.

Yes, the “flesh-eating drug” seen in the shock Krokodil pictures is simply adulterated codeine. You know, the stuff the dentist gives you when he pulls a tooth. Codeine is, while a controlled substance, not one known to pose a threat to American kids in such a manner that a panic needs to rise up because unethical drug dealers are cutting it with garbage like gasoline and acid.

(Newsflash: Street drugs are often cut with other substances and cannot be trusted.)

The people seen in the flesh-eating drug pics from the slums of Russia are simply opiate addicts, not unlike heroin or Vicodin dependent people. And when they’re desperate for a fix, they purchase low-quality, adulterated opiates… which they inject, and suffer devastating and life-threatening infections as a result.

Yes, the flesh-eating drug pics are real, and Krokodil is a dangerous substance. But it’s not a “new drug,” and we’d even gamble it’s not “just hitting America,” since as long as there has been a drug market and demand for codeine and related substances, there have been dealers cutting it with any number of contaminants.

According to ABC, the flesh-eating drug Krokodil is a “trend,” and the public should be aware — lest any of you planned to inject opiates as the weekend approaches, you know and are sufficiently warned.