# 192 

Users are now, finally coming to realize which substances can get them "high" vs those substances that can take them "low"...all the way to death.

 

The below hyperlink presents a user who explains to a reporter how unscrupulous drug dealers have deceived users who believed that they were purchasing a Central Nervous System (CNS) Stimulant (gets them "high", increases heart-rate and respiration rate).

Sadly, the user laments that deceptive marketing by unscrupulous dealers have failed to disclose that their purchase may include a more potent CNS Depressant, Fentanyl, that can make them "low"...very "Low"...all the way to death, quickly.

The reporter confirms the user's fears, in this article, with cold facts:

"Or at least J.R. hoped it was cocaine, pure cocaine — uncontaminated by fentanyl, a potent opioid that was linked to about 75% of all overdose deaths in Rhode Island in 2022. He flicked his lighter to “test” his supply. He believed that if it had a “cigar-like sweet smell,” he said, it would mean that the cocaine was laced with fentanyl. He put the pipe to his lips and took a tentative puff. “No sweet,” he said, reassured."

Not wishing to end their "habit" , the article indicates that a Professor at Brown University reports that free, or inexpensive, test strips are no being distributed to users - along with lifesaving instruction for using the strips which detect Fentanyl.

"The only way to know whether cocaine or other stimulants contain fentanyl is to use drug-checking tools such as fentanyl test strips — a best practice for what’s known as “harm reduction,” now embraced by federal health officials in combating drug overdose deaths. Fentanyl test strips cost as little as $2 for a two-pack online, but many front-line organizations also give them out free."

The reader is reminded that this blog reported on England's life-saving approach at Concerts whereby users can take their substances to an immunity table where they do not risk arrest and technicians will test their substance for free and produce a conclusion Use/Don't Use.

https://apple.news/AVhBC3h4uT4iqzAk9cOc6Hg