How does anthrax get into heroin?

M

massrock

Well-known member
I suppose through use of animal hides maybe. Just seems kind of unlikely.

"Heroin users are advised to cease taking heroin by any route, if at all possible, and to seek help from their local drug treatment services"

Best lay off the smack for a while chaps, until this all blows over.

There was a drum maker in Hackney who died a couple of years ago from inhaling spores.
 
vimothy

vimothy

yurp
Mostly through other gateway drugs liike weed or acid, as well as hanging around with the wrong people, and living in Wales.
 
Mr. Tea

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Same as any other band, I guess - backstage after a show, bit of coke going round, dealer says "Hey, I've got some gear if you wanna try..." - next thing you know, the drummer's in ER with collapsed veins. :(
 
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nomadthethird

nomadthethird

more issues than Time mag
It doesn't. Anthrax is much more expensive and difficult to find/produce than heroin is. It's about as likely to find its way into heroin as pure gold is. (Unless the Columbians or Afghanis are using the same labs to make both and somebody forgot to wash out the beakers...)

Anyway, if I were using I'd definitely not waste good dope because of something silly that a week's worth of antibiotics could take care of.

There isn't a junkie in the world who would throw away heroin because there was anthrax in it.
 
M

massrock

Well-known member
Yeah it does seem unlikely to me.

I'm referring to this story, and to some more recent 'alerts' about anthrax tainted heroin in England and Europe.

Not suggesting they're not genuine but I find it hard to see how appreciable quantities of anthrax would get into a batch of heroin without presenting a risk to those involved in production. I guess stranger things have happened.

Gordon Meldrum, director general of the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency, said the spate of deaths was disturbing. "Illegal drugs are often prepared in unhygienic surroundings and can be vulnerable to contamination from various harmful agents.It is highly probable that the contamination of heroin by anthrax is accidental and there is a history of batches of heroin being contaminated in Afghanistan, Turkey and other countries key to the production and supply of heroin.

"Production processes can be basic and often be conducted in areas where there is contamination from animal carcasses or faeces. Our priority remains to reduce the harm to drug users and the communities they live in and all cases will be investigated and reported where appropriate to the procurator fiscal."
Click to expand...

So there's a history of this happening? OK...

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/s...-be-behind-spate-of-addict-deaths-716959.html

Interesting. And they suggest it's less dangerous to go intravenous than intramuscular, as far as anthrax infection goes. People on drug forums say IM'ing street heroin is v.bad idea anyway.
 
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nomadthethird

nomadthethird

more issues than Time mag
massrock said:
Yeah it does seem unlikely to me.

I'm referring to this story, and to some more recent 'alerts' about anthrax tainted heroin in England and Europe.

Not suggesting they're not genuine but I find it hard to see how appreciable quantities of anthrax would get into a batch of heroin without presenting a risk to those involved in production. I guess stranger things have happened.



So there's a history of this happening? OK...

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/s...-be-behind-spate-of-addict-deaths-716959.html

Interesting. And they suggest it's less dangerous to go intravenous than intramuscular, as far as anthrax infection goes. People on drug forums say IM'ing street heroin is v.bad idea anyway.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I think the people who died got the cutaneous form of anthrax, on the skin, from injecting, which is sad because it's the most easily treatable. It must have spread to their bloodstreams pretty quickly.

IMing isn't any worse than any other way, except you may get deeper abcesses if you're not careful. Most people don't do it until they collapse all their veins because you can't get as high as quickly that way.

I'd guess that some douchebag amateur with a homelab was making heroin 3 into the water soluble hydrochloride salts (h 4) and producing anthrax in his basement and just wasn't clean enough about it. Racial profiling would suggest it was some middle eastern mafioso with a degree in chemistry. But I guess you really never know.
 
Z

zhao

there are no accidents
well at the height of their popularity, which was probably the late 80s? i'm sure the stuff was constantly around them. so it would not have been difficult to get into it at all.
 
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