I am a specialist in drug and alcohol addiction recovery. I started in this area in 1970 at college and since then thousands of people have passed through my clinics.
As a clinical hypnotherapist (AHA), psychotherapist (PACFA) and naturopath (ANPA) there are so many ways I can help you.
Sometimes, people have taken street drugs which turned out to be different than what they expected. They become sick and can suffer extreme illness which can become life threatening.
There are of course those who, even with one dose, die of the side effects from what they have taken. Don’t zone out – because this is information you need to know if you are taking street drugs.
How common is contamination of street drugs?
Over 50 years I have seen street drug contamination problems. It’s a common practice for street dealers and street drug manufacturers to sell drugs that are other than described.
If you’re buying medication from a chemist that has been bought from a pharmaceutical company, the regulators insist on quality control. Therefore, you generally, and I do say generally, get what is described on the packaging.
The drug dealers of course know that their drugs are cut with other substances. But if they are stuck with the street drugs they have bought they will sell it to you anyway, because they want to recoup their money and turn a profit.
And drug testing is not widely available for you buying those drugs, so you never really know what you are getting.
When and where are street drugs being contaminated?
Heroin dealers have always been contaminating their product. Dealers have always cut heroin with anything from baking soda to rat poison, as long as it looks like heroin, to increase its bulk and their profits.
In 2019 Houck reported several cases of heroin being cut with a powder call ‘Rizzy’, that is used to colour the petals of plants (1). The effects caused the users’ skin to rot and fall off. In the study the heroin sold only contained up to 20% pure product maximum and the rest was fillers.
Heroin also gets cut with fentanyl. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 50 times more powerful than pure heroin, so the user becomes highly addicted (2). Since it is stronger it can be smuggled more easily than heroin.
I saw someone who had stopped using it for two years but then due to a traumatic situation, she scored. Because the heroin was cut, she didn’t come up straight away, so she scored a second time and died of an overdose.
And I’ve also seen thousands of people who were permanently damaged by the use of street drugs, year after year.
If you are using, you have probably known many people who have overdosed and probably a collection of them who have died. You yourself may have overdosed and known each time what you are using is not pure.
MDMA
In the 1990s street drug manufacturers began to cut MDMA with methamphetamine to give a larger high, and get the users addicted. They were called White Diamonds and very quickly became popular on the dance scene.
At first people did not know what they were taking, thinking they were just doing MDMA. After a very short time lots of people stopped being weekend party people and turned into full-time methamphetamine users.
Recently testing found that some tablets don’t have MDMA at all but cheaper contaminants like PMA (paramethoxyamphetamine) which is more toxic at lower does and can lead to renal failure, heart attack, stroke and death (3).
Drug examination of MDMA in Australia, New Zealand and the UK has been found to contain three doses of the drugs which leads to severe side effects.
How safe are your drugs?
Every single drug you buy on the street is not as described. It has been altered or added to in some way to produce more product and make it more profitable.
It may even have been manufactured like that in the first place to have cheaper substitute ingredients and is not as it’s described.
You may think, ‘But my friend took it and they had a good time’, which is absolutely no guarantee of safety. Their tolerance may be different from yours or they may have had a drug from a different batch.
Sure, you want to have a good time like your friends. You, your dealer, and friend may talk yourselves into the idea that your supply is safe but it’s not.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics found there were 1,693 drug-induced deaths in 2022. In 2021-2022 there were 135,000 hospital admissions due to drug side effects and overdoses (4).
In the USA it was reported there were 107,543 drug overdose deaths during 2023 (5). It was a slight reduction but mainly due to the oxycontin scandal where the manufacturers were caught hiding the fact that those medications could be addictive.
Fake medications on the drug scene
Recently and alarmingly, what appeared on the market is a series of fake medications that are sold on the street. It started in Mexico and spread to the USA.
They look like Adderall, Percocet, oxycodone, Xanax, and other opioid-type pain killers. However, they can be laced with methamphetamine or MDMA. This includes 15% to 40% sold off the shelves in independent pharmacies.
They are also sold as medications on the street for people to use when they are partying. They can contain fentanyl, methamphetamine and nitazenes and other synthetic opioids, some 100 times more potent than heroin and are killing people. Detected Etonitazene is 1000 times stronger than heroin (6).
These new contamination street drugs can lead to respiratory failure and death. They have been detected in Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, and Western Australia where deaths have occurred.
Here, I have only touched on a few contaminants in street drugs. The reality is all street drugs are contaminated and if they don’t kill you, they may cause damage to your organs for life – so get help now.
Fast addiction help with hypnotherapy, psychotherapy and counselling. Either in clinic consultations or by Zoom anywhere in the world. Take action now and call Dr Tracie O’Keefe: 0403 398 808.
About Dr Tracie O’Keefe DCH
Dr Tracie O’Keefe DCH, BSc, ND, is one of the most highly qualified and experienced clinical hypnotherapists, psychotherapists, counsellors, naturopaths, and mental health professionals practising in Australia today. She has received worldwide recognition and praise for her research, development of clinical procedures and teaching. She is the author of 10 books and hundreds of articles and papers.
References
(1) Friedman, J., Godvin, M., Molina, C., Romero, R., Borquez, A., Avra, T., Goodman-Meza, D., Strathdee, S., Bourgois, P., & Shover, C. L. (2023). Fentanyl, heroin, and methamphetamine-based counterfeit pills sold at tourist-oriented pharmacies in Mexico: An ethnographic and drug checking study. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 249, 110819. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2023.110819
(2) Houck, J., & Ganti, L. (2019). A local epidemic of laced heroin causing skin necrosis. Cureus, 11(5), e4782. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.4782
(3) Krolikowski, A. M., & Koyfman, A. (2014). Methamphetamine and MDMA: ‘Safe’ drugs of abuse / Méthamphétamine et MDMA: Abus de drogues “récréatives”. African Journal of Emergency Medicine, 4(1), 34-38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.afjem.2013.11.003
(4) Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2024, July 10). Illicit drug use. Australian Bureau of Statistics. https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/illicit-use-of-drugs/illicit-drug-use
(5) National Center for Health Statistics. (2024, May 15). U.S. overdose deaths decrease in 2023, first time since 2018. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/nchs_press_releases/2024/20240515.htm
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