New Drug Zohydro (Legal Heroin) Hits The Market - 10 Times More Powerful Than Vicodin

[houstonwhodat]

Druggies rejoice!

Approved by the FDA last month, new drug Zohydro hit's the market.

Brought to you by Zogenix the makers of Oxycontin, Zohydro is an Opiate drug said to be 10 times more powerful than Vicodin.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/melanieh...too-dangerous/

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/...0MA0RB20140313


per Forbes Magazine:

"A new opiate painkiller with 5 to 10 times the power of Vicodin, set to hit the market in March, could trigger a disastrous spike in overdoses and deaths, says a powerful coalition of doctors, lawmakers, and addiction specialists.

“In the midst of a severe drug addiction epidemic fueled by overprescribing of opioids, the very last thing the country needs is a new, dangerous, high-dose opioid,” the experts wrote, addressing FDA Commissioner Margaret A. Hamburg, MD.

One member of the letter-writing coalition, Andrew Kolodny, president of the advocacy group Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing, was more blunt: “It’s a whopping dose of hydrocodone packed in an easy-to-crush capsule. It will kill people as soon as it’s released.”

What’s all the fuss about? Plenty. Zohydro is so strong that someone new to opioids could die of an overdose from just two pills, the experts say. And a child could die from ingesting just one capsule. According to the FDA’s review, the relief – or the high – of Zohydro can last up to 12 hours per dose."



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[Mecca]

Vicodin doesn't do shit for me so...

After my surgery I was given Oxycodone.

[Mecca]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

One does of Fentanyl can kill.

Are you talking about that patch or like an actual injection.

[NewChief]

Originally Posted by Mecca

Are you talking about that patch or like an actual injection.

Both. There were defective ones that were leading to people overdosing even when they were using them as prescribed and legitimately. I know that people do take the patches, remove the gel, and smoke it. I don't think they can inject it, though they might be able to cook the gel into some injectable form (opiate/heroin subculture can be ingenious with this shit).

As for illicit use, it has a greater repressive effect on the respiratory system than "normal" opiates. Illicit users often use it like they do their normal opiate and overdose really easily. A lot of times when you hear about a big outbreak of heroin junkies overdosing, it's because their heroin was either fentanyl or mixed with fentanyl.

Jay Bennett from Wilco overdose on Fentanyl (which he was prescribed).

[Mecca]

Originally Posted by NewChief

Both. There were defective ones that were leading to people overdosing even when they were using them as prescribed and legitimately. I know that people do take the patches, remove the gel, and smoke it. I don't think they can inject it, though they might be able to cook the gel into some injectable form (opiate/heroin subculture can be ingenious with this shit).

As for illicit use, it has a greater repressive effect on the respiratory system than "normal" opiates. Illicit users often use it like they do their normal opiate and overdose really easily. A lot of times when you hear about a big outbreak of heroin junkies overdosing, it's because their heroin was either fentanyl or mixed with fentanyl.

Jay Bennett from Wilco overdose on Fentanyl (which he was prescribed).

Ah I was just wondering. I have never really taken many painkillers in my life but some things just don't work for me. Like I said Vicodin does nothing I might as well take nothing, Tylenol 3 same thing, nothing.

Oxycodone works but doesn't make me feel loopy at all, it's weird to have a tolerance when you don't take it often. I've even been given diloted pills before and that didn't make me feel weird.

[Fairplay]

I want the drug, I need the drug I must have the drug

[ClevelandBronco]

Originally Posted by NewChief

Both. There were defective ones that were leading to people overdosing even when they were using them as prescribed and legitimately. I know that people do take the patches, remove the gel, and smoke it. I don't think they can inject it, though they might be able to cook the gel into some injectable form (opiate/heroin subculture can be ingenious with this shit).

As for illicit use, it has a greater repressive effect on the respiratory system than "normal" opiates. Illicit users often use it like they do their normal opiate and overdose really easily. A lot of times when you hear about a big outbreak of heroin junkies overdosing, it's because their heroin was either fentanyl or mixed with fentanyl.

Jay Bennett from Wilco overdose on Fentanyl (which he was prescribed).

I recognize that this stuff and some of the other amazingly effective but highly toxic medicines we have now have the potential to damage or destroy more people at the margin even when they are used as prescribed, but the sort of people who go to extreme lengths like scraping patches and smoking opioids have a problem that's more about who they are than it is about what kind of stuff is available to them.

The sad fact of the matter is that there is a fraction of people who are going to ride addiction down to remarkable depths and even into death no matter what substances are available or how they have to go about getting them.

[NewChief]

Originally Posted by ClevelandBronco

I recognize that this stuff and some of the other amazingly effective but highly toxic medicines we have now have the potential to damage or destroy more people at the margin even when they are used as prescribed, but the sort of people who go to extreme lengths like scraping patches and smoking opioids have a problem that's more about who they are than it is about what kind of stuff is available to them.

The sad fact of the matter is that there is a fraction of people who are going to ride addiction down to remarkable depths and even into death no matter what substances are available or how they have to go about getting them.

I agree more or less. That being said, there's really no explanation for the vast overproduction of addictive drugs by pharmaceutical companies other than that they're pretty much figuring black market sales into their analysis of future demand, which represents (as others have said) them basically being legal drug dealers.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by Mecca

Are you talking about that patch or like an actual injection.

Both. The patch is actually VERY dangerous because it's not a 100%-efficient delivery mechanism.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by ClevelandBronco

I recognize that this stuff and some of the other amazingly effective but highly toxic medicines we have now have the potential to damage or destroy more people at the margin even when they are used as prescribed, but the sort of people who go to extreme lengths like scraping patches and smoking opioids have a problem that's more about who they are than it is about what kind of stuff is available to them.

The sad fact of the matter is that there is a fraction of people who are going to ride addiction down to remarkable depths and even into death no matter what substances are available or how they have to go about getting them.

Dude, I could go to a doctor today and get a scrip for Vicodin and Xanax, both. Together.

Doctors have to stop handing this stuff out like candy.

[Steron]

I wonder how long it lasts in the system. If it lasts longer than existing opiates I can certainly see the benefit to it. However, with every medication / drug legal or otherwise there is always somebody willing to abuse it. Should that deter the FDA from approving it and deter doctors from prescribing it?

[Eleazar]

It's starting to be that a lot of family practice doctors won't give benzos anymore except in protracted circumstances. There are too many risks and in most cases, alternatives.

[NewChief]

Originally Posted by Cochise

It's starting to be that a lot of family practice doctors won't give benzos anymore except in protracted circumstances. There are too many risks and in most cases, alternatives.

Yeah. I've always hated those things, but for the people I know who like them: they are the devil. My friends on benzos are really obvious, especially when they drink. They're sloppy in about 2 drinks, and I mean SLOPPY. Getting off of them is horrible as well, because there are significant long term psychological effects that stick around for potentially years.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by Cochise

It's starting to be that a lot of family practice doctors won't give benzos anymore except in protracted circumstances. There are too many risks and in most cases, alternatives.

Not around here.

I know people who have drug-related criminal records that have walked into a doctor with "insomnia" or "anxiety" and walked out with Xanax or Ativan.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by NewChief

Yeah. I've always hated those things, but for the people I know who like them: they are the devil. My friends on benzos are really obvious, especially when they drink. They're sloppy in about 2 drinks, and I mean SLOPPY. Getting off of them is horrible as well, because there are significant long term psychological effects that stick around for potentially years.

Yep.

Nothing better than having dinner with a buddy and watching him drool and pass out.

[Eleazar]

I don't think the article is very clear about what Zohydro is, it's not a new drug per se. It's the same basic drug as Vicodin, just in a different preparation. Vicodin (or Lortab or other variants) are a small amount of hydrocodone prepared with acetaminophen or some other pain killer.

Those drugs are analgesics that you take PRN. Zohydro is an ER formulation, so it would only be indicated for a chronic condition causing severe pain which requires round-the-clock opioid treatment.