In the recent article, "Krokodil: Flesh-eating zombie
drug kills you from the inside out", Jen Christensen, a
journalist for CNN.com, informs her readers of the hideous consequences of this drug and how it is spreading throughout the globe.
In the article, Dr. Abhin Singla, an addiction specialist at Joliet, Illinois' Presence St. Joseph Medical Center, has treated people, he suspects, that have used this drug and says, "It's a zombie drug--it literally kills you from the inside out. If you want to die, this is a way to die." Causing your skin to become black or green and scaly, Krokodil extremely damages your skin. In most cases, patients lost significant amounts of their bodies because of this heroine-like drug.
Also, Dr. Robert Geller, the medical director at Georgia Poison Center, explains the medical effects of Krokodil and states, "The soft tissue damage happens around the injection site. The drug also seems to clump in the veins as it fails to dissolve completely in the blood. The clumps make their way to distant places in the body and start to damage tissue." The drug has not appeared in Georgia yet, but doctors fear that Krokodil will spread quickly. I just do not understand how some people can do this to their bodies and be okay with the consequences? Do they have no common sense?
The fire of Krokodil was started in Russia, and continues to burn throughout the world. Christensen explains in the article, "An estimated 100,000 in Russia and around 20,000 people in Ukraine are estimated to have injected the drug in 2011, according to a study that ran in the International Journal of Drug Policy this year. Experts theorize the drug first spread across Russia and Ukraine when heroin became less available." Made easily and much easier to obtain, Krokodil is a danger that most addicts are to tempted to try. The outlook is not good for these people. Those who cannot get there hands on heroine will turn to the fire.
The effects of this drug remind me of leprosy, in a way. Leprosy, a disease that is not so common today, a very nasty thing to have, made the diseased persons body parts fall off. It was very contagious, and most people were shunned if they had leprosy. Talked about in the Bible, leprosy was probably more common in those days then the sickness is now.
Though there have been no confirmed cases of Krokodil abuse, we all suspect that this is something that does not need to be played with. After all, who wants to be a zombie?
Works Cited
Christensen, Jen. "Krokodil: Flesh eating 'zombie drug' kills you from the inside out." CNN.com.
18 Oct. 2013. Web. 9 Nov. 2013.
