Krokodil Rots Flesh




There's a new illegal drug threat on the street.

Krokodil (or "crocodile") is desomorphine, a synthetic opiate first brewed up here in the US of A. in 1932, and a scourge that's currently ravaging Russia.

Essentially, desomorphine is a sedative and analgesic that acts much faster than morphine. But this stuff is nasty: "to produce krokodil ... addicts mix it with ingredients including gasoline, paint thinner, hydrochloric acid, iodine and red phosphorous, which they scrape from the striking pads on matchboxes," Time tells us.

The poisons cause the flesh to turn scaly -- hence, "crocodile" -- and should a user miss the vein, they are marked with swells, blisters and boils. The Independent reports:

"Photographs of late-stage krokodil addicts are disturbing in the extreme. Flesh goes grey and peels away to leave bones exposed. People literally rot to death."

The life expectancy of a full-blown, hardcore krokodil addict is one year.

Check out some graphic images of the effects of using krokodil. Warning, they are nasty pictures.