It was a rough day. They pulled a guy out of a storm drain this morning. I guess he thought it was the only way out. The details are a hundred percent rumor and at least three degrees of separation, but I’ll tell you what I’ve heard.
Darren (or maybe Darrell) was looking for his buddy who didn’t show up to the typical hangout last night, and a lady friend said she had a bad feeling in her stomach that something was wrong. I’ve felt that before. Call it intuition. She kept badgering him to go find their friend, so they started asking around if anyone knew where he might be. They eventually made their way to where the guy usually spent his time during the heat of the day, and there he was.
He’d hanged himself with a piece of nylon rope on a rebar-rung ladder going up to a manhole cover. He’d been an addict for as long as anyone who knew him could remember. That doesn’t mean that’s why he was down here (the drugs), but it’s pretty likely.
Of course, the rumors have already started–that it wasn’t suicide, who hasn’t been around, who could have done it. It’s all just drama. If it’s true the rope was tied to a rung of a ladder, that means, unless he was unconscious, there were lower rungs there to support him. He wanted to die.
It was krokodil. That was his thing, apparently. It’s basically a cheap knockoff drug that people turn to when they can’t afford heroine anymore. It’s extremely addictive–euphoric, calming. I just looked up the side effects:
- Skin infections at the injection site
- Open ulcers
- Infections in blood vessels
- Scaly patches of skin
- Blood poisoning
- Soft tissue infections
- Gangrene
- Eventual amputation of affected limbs
- Speech impairment or impediment
- Loss of fine motor skills
- Memory impairment or memory loss
- Overdose
- Death
Sounds like a real gas. Basically, if you survive the stuff, you’re likely going to be disfigured and have permanent brain damage. Isn’t that nice? There’s more. The article listed the ingredients used in krok’s production:
- Codeine
- Paint thinner
- Gasoline
- Hydrochloric acid
- Red phosphorous scraped from matchboxes
- Multiple other harmful chemicals
What kind of mindset does someone have to have in order to mix these ingredients with the intention of injecting them into their body? Worse yet, what kind of animal mixes this crap and sells it to people? I’m seriously considering not posting this just because some idiot might read it and try it out. Seriously, if this is you, keep reading. If a user doesn’t get treatment, their lifespan is down to about three years. Those three years are spent with your skin and muscle rotting away, so keep that in mind when you’re trying to decide which part of your body you can afford to lose after you inject it.
Knowing all of this, there’s no doubt in my mind, the guy they pulled out of the storm drain wanted to put an end to it–his three years were up.
Darren (or maybe Darrell) said this guy’s brother went to prison for killing their father after their mom left them because he put hands her about a hundred times too many. I’m on the fence about hoping he had some kind of ID on him to notify his next of kin. Maybe they’re better off not knowing.
Here’s the part you don’t want your kids to read. The guy had wrapped his legs in sheets because the abscesses “took over” his skin. It’s how krokodil got its street name. Rumor has it, when they uncovered his legs, there were huge maggots all over, eating the necrotic flesh. The thing is, he hadn’t been missing long enough for maggots to hatch out of eggs, let alone to gorge themselves and become “huge.” Of course, that means they’d been there for days. Don’t get me wrong, maggots have been used in medicine for just that purpose for millennia. In fact, maggots are still used today to clear dead tissue from open wounds, but how does an addict let it get to that point? Ah. I just re-read it. It’s the permanent brain damage.