Within the Jaws of "Krokodil"

In 1979, during the Soviet-Afghan War, the Mujahidin insurgency utilized its opium trade as the means to fund their defense against the Soviet invasion. The war would continue for the next nine years, as poppy cultivation flourished, presenting the opportunity for  a thriving illegal drug trade, locally and abroad.

Afghanistan produces 3/4 of the world's heroin supply, however as most opium producers within Afghanistan lack the fundamental knowledge of global, narco-economic networking and organization, they in turn dispatch the product to neighboring countries, who then supply Europe, Iran, Asia, and other major pipelines for worldwide trafficking.
Leading the world in IV drug users is Russia, home to over 1.8 million opiate addicts. With the country's rehabilitation system severely lacking the funds and resources, most addicts who've resolved to get clean rely on the limited number of privately owned clinics. Most of these are virtual dead ends, as they're either headed by inexperienced staff or overzealous religious cults, racking up their head counts by preying on the vulnerabilities of ignorant, sickly people.

As with most cases in drug addiction, an addict ultimately crosses into desperation. Drug usage becomes more of a chore than a social pastime. Money is low; tolerance is up. At this point, sobriety is not an attractive option, as the very thought of the imminent withdrawals to come seems far more frightening than the possibility of death itself.
If a deadly, yet easily attainable alternative satiates their pain, for just another hour, so be it.

Meet "Krokodil", sometimes referred to as "the poor man's heroin" or “Russian Magic,”a cheap, homemade knockoff of crudely synthesized desomorphine. 

Originally invented in 1932, desomorphine was offered as a faster, more potent alternative to morphine for alleviating pain in terminally ill patients. However, with the high toxicity and complications that came with its use, the medical community began phasing out its application by the late 1970s. Thirty years later, desomorphine would take on a new role, and a frightening new face

The first known reports of Krokodil came out of Siberia in 2002. Since then, it's spread throughout Russia and has come into popularity among IV drug users in other countries including the Ukraine, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Armenia. 

Around 2005, two years after anti-drug agencies began cracking down on heroin manufacture and production, Russia began to see a spike in Krok cases.
A single dose of Krokodil is 1/10 of the price of heroin, with 1 mg of Krok producing the effects of 10 mg of morphine, though the euphoric effects begin to wear off in less than two hours. 

The high toxicity of Krokodil, its highly addictive properties, combined with the addict's craving and constant fear of the painful withdrawals, makes for a very deadly chain of events in which the user rarely escapes unscathed.

Desomorphine, in its days of legitimate usage, was commonly produced by reacting agents like thionyl chloride with codeine. However, much like a meth cook attempting to manufacture meth from pseudoephedrine, the common Krok cook is known to use a number of very dangerous and volatile solvents in their crude synthesis, producing a very unpredictable product.

Before Krokodil's popularity caught the attention of law enforcement, most Russian pharmacies made 25 percent of their earnings selling codeine pain killers, such as Codterpin.  

Codeine became extremely profitable, as evidenced by the massive stockpiles of the drug that were consistently being discovered in the pharmacies under investigation.

As laws restricting the number of pills any one person could purchase went into effect, many pharmacists simply began circumventing the law, selling off the record at inflated black market prices. A pharmacist who was willing to take the risk could bring in over $2,500 a day.

Between 2009 and 2011, law enforcement had seized 65 million doses of Krokodil, reinforcing the fears of Krok possibly becoming an all out epidemic.
Part of what makes Krokodil so deadly has to do with its production, as cooks utilize some of the most harmful substances anyone could ever inject into their bloodstream.
Cooks have been known to employ paint thinner, hydrochloric acid, iodine, gasoline and the red phosphorus scrapings from the strike pads on
matchboxes in the synthesization process.

Some, in their fervor to increase potency, will experiment with the hydrocarbons in household cleaners and cosmetics, or add ingredients such as caffeine or tropicamide (a chemical found in prescription eyedrops) to the mixture. 
The result is a highly impure variant of desomorphine, a pungent, cloudy, yellowish liquid concoction, loaded with corrosive byproducts and  excessive amounts of zinc, iron and lead—something the average person wouldn't want to be within 5 feet of, let alone ingest.

A primary danger any IV drug user faces is never knowing exactly what they're getting.

Codeine, in many instances, is easier to attain and much cheaper than heroin, tempting many drug dealers to seek an increase in profits by passing off Krokodil as heroin. This practice has become especially common in many dealer's underhanded transactions with unsuspecting tourists, who may not realize exactly what danger they're in until hours after they've ingested the drug, or the dealer has long since skipped town.

The name "Krokodil" is derived from the appearance of it's users, whose skin takes on a scaly, dry complexion similar to that of a crocodile soon after their habitual use begins.

Krok users spiral downhill fairly fast as they increasingly become cognitively and physically disabled. Erratic, involuntary movements and slurred speech are the initial hallmarks of Krok use, but things progressively get much worse.

The chemicals in Krokodil eventually damage the user's circulatory system, leaving discolored, green and black scaly gangrenous patches of skin, scabs and extreme ulcerations and abscesses on the injection sites. 

Some users develop phlebitis, or loss of sensation; others require emergency amputations, as soft tissue infections and necrosis set in and become life threatening.

Heavy, habitual users or those who inject directly into their muscles (to expedite the euphoric effect) literally rot to death, as the iodine and phosphorus eat away at their muscle tissue and cartilage. Atrophy manifests and skin tissue down to the bone.

While the visual horrors and symptoms may alert the user to seek help, the most damaging effects are those he/she cannot see or feel.

The drug is a strong sedative and analgesic. As the user continues to inject, their thyroid, liver and kidneys will begin to fail and their veins corrode and collapse. As their nervous system is slowly wiped out, they'll almost always remain oblivious to the pain they're inflicting on themselves until it’s too late.
Though not all Krok users will acquire these symptoms, the harmful, abrasive chemicals, along with the opportunistic infections common to the injection sites of IV drug users, both factor in when it comes to the physical ailments associated with the drug. 

At best, a Krok user can only increase their chances of survival by checking into a medical facility and detoxing under the extreme pain of prolonged withdrawals.

Without intervention, the life expectancy of a Krok user is roughly two to three years from their first injection.
They slowly poison themselves and become walking pieces of rotting meat. There's absolutely no way of sugar-coating the existence of the Krok user.
The U.S. hasn't seen enough confirmed cases of Krokodil use to date, though in early 2014, a 17-year-old girl from Houston complaining of digestive problems was admitted to a hospital in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Upon examination, doctors detected lesions around her genital area, which they initially assumed was an advanced case of an STD. 

It was later revealed that she had reportedly been injecting the Krokodil into various areas of her groin.

In 2013, the state of Sonora in Mexico confirmed its first case of Krok-related ailments in an addict who had sought out medical attention.

Other cases have surfaced in Missouri, Chicago, Oklahoma and Arizona, though because there is no diagnostic test for Krokodil, it's difficult to differentiate between a blood sample of someone who ingested a traditional Krok concoction, and that of a person who simply shot up a crude mixture of hydrocodone and cleanser.

In any case, the inherently useless among us have taken notice, and so long as there's someone out there who claims to have a new and improved way to get high, the dregs of society will scrape up their pennies and flock to it, even if it kills them.

Krok could very easily become to modern times what crack-cocaine was to the 1980s.
Drug addicts andcriminals bring to mind one thing: human beings have an uncanny talent for intentionally and willingly charging head first into self destruction. 

Many of these impulses are enabled culturally, while some are as  familial as genetic traits. Other's are simply contagious idiosyncrasies, shared among peer groups.

Compounding these problems, are the hoards of egomaniacal do-gooders and apologists, with their unrelenting obsessions with preserving the purveyors of such idiocy. 

These would be such individuals as those with pockets full of indiscriminate "love" and a la carte Bible incantations, who would just as well see the world rife with criminal garbage, and drug-addled, walking corpses, than forego their pats on the back for their altruisitic advocacies.

The plight of the Krokodil user is an extreme example, but an example nonetheless, of a group of people who in all respects, simply do not belong in a civilized world or deserve the proverbial cushion to ease the consequences of an intentional fall.

Even animals don't shit where they eat, but if people began finding this trendy, there'd surely be those who'd swear by their lives on Facebook that we "just don't know the whole story", or that with enough prayer and forgiveness, their dining habits would change.

Drugs and crime are products of their environment, environments which we've either created or enabled to flourish due to apathy and the fear of doling out punishments in accordance to the severity of their transgressions. 

I don't believe that the communities around the world that are exponentially afflicted with these conditions will ever significantly improve, as those with the wherewithal to hold their societies to higher standards, would never let them deteriorate to such a degree to begin with.

Pessimistic? Possibly. In respects to human nature, sometimes the road to clarity is paved with misanthropy.