“Krokodil recipe” and “how to make krokodil” are being searched on Google after the drug reportedly hit the U.S. The flesh-eating drug has been in Russia for nearly a decade, and now it’s rumored to be in Arizona, Illinois and New York.
[Click here to see pictures of krokodil. Warning: Extremely graphic photos. Viewer discretion advised.]
I’ve been writing about krokodil since I first read about it nearly a year ago. As if heroin wasn’t scary enough, people started to mix up their own desomorphine using toxins to create krokodil, or “crocodile,” as it’s also known. It was frightening the drug was pretty much rampant in Russia, but it’s become even more terrifying now that it’s reportedly in several U.S. states.
The drug’s name is derived from the greenish, scaly sores that develop close to the injection sites on its users. According to media reports, it can rot all the flesh off a limb, such as an arm or a leg, and expose the bone. It’s also been reported the life expectancy of a person who begins abusing krokodil is two to three years. Some even refer to it as the drug that turns people into zombies.
When most people hear krokodil is essentially a drug that eats people, some wonder why anyone would ever get near the stuff, but others use the Google search terms “crocodile drug” and “krokodil” not to discover why someone would use it but to find out how to make it.
If one were to go to the Google Search page and slowly type “krokodil,” then “krokodil recipe” would among the first things that comes up via the autofill feature.
Naturally, I’m not going to mention the toxins that addicts use to mix up their desomorphine. I have done it in previous articles, and some people ridiculed me for doing so. However, it’s not that I’m changing how or what I write because of what others might say -- I just don’t want anyone figuring out the recipe because of something I wrote.
For those who are curious as to why anyone would take krokodil, as opposed to how to make it, there’s a pretty telling quote from a 2011 article that appeared in the Independent where an addict talks about his choice to use the deadly substance. “You can feel how disgusting it is when you’re doing it,” the addict told the news site. “You’re dreaming of heroin, of something that feels clean and not like poison. But you can’t afford it, so you keep doing the krokodil. Until you die.”
Meanwhile, none of the alleged cares of krokodil use in Arizona, Illinois and New York have been confirmed.