Hacker News Reader

Comment by plantwallshoe | Hacker News Reader

Everyone I know who recreationally does cocaine is scared to continue because of the risk of fentanyl contamination.

Curious: from an economic perspective why would anyone in the industry want to contaminate their product like that? Like it's a fundamentally different substance with a different effect. If you bought mixed drugs from your dealer, you'd probably not do business with them again and would warn people away from them.

> If you bought mixed drugs from your dealer, you'd probably not do business with them again and would warn people away from them.

Dead customers can't return anyway.

They don't do it intentionally for the most part, it's cross contamination or poorly handling and lab protocol by people with cargo cult training.

It looks like test strips for fentanyl are legal in 30 states. In the remaining 20 they are generally treated as drug paraphernalia. A number of states only allow fentanyl test strips, all other testing materials are drug paraphernalia.

All data as of August 2022.

[pdf] https://www.networkforphl.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Leg...

The rest of us use test kits from dance safe.

I can confirm. A friend of mine used to distribute test kits at raves. This was like around 2000, so this is not new.

You dilute in water, test, then dry back out into powder every bit of cocaine you use?

Do you not?

Everyone I know washes and tests their stuff.

Are there confirmed cases of this happening?

I just looked it up and found this DEA report published in 2018 - https://www.dea.gov/sites/default/files/2018-07/BUL-039-18.p...

> Forensic chemists discovered fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances including acetyl fentanyl, carfentanil, Furanylfentanyl, and p- fluoroisobutyryl fentanyl in over 180 cocaine exhibits.

That's really scary. It's been a long time since any of my friends did coke, not sure would have put them off, maybe it would.

Currently residing in Cincinnati, and I witnessed an off-duty officer resuscitate a college-aged kid while waiting for ambulances to arrive. His friends didn't even notice as he gradually slowed down and collapsed while they headed to their next destination.

Aren’t there testing kits available that you could use?

And what if you test the good part and there is a hotspot of carfentanyl in the line you shoot up your nose? You’re dead instantly. There is no safe way to take illicit drugs anymore.

I know literally hundreds of people who regularly or semi-regularly do illicit drugs, including myself. And if you read the testing instructions, you'll find that the best way is to mix and test the entire package of drugs, not just a sample. Though to be honest, few people I know test with any regularity.

Yeah, mixing everything and testing a sample of it still does not guarantee that you won't have a hot pocket of something mysterious and deadly, but did not get into the test sample no matter how well you think you're mixing it. This is why the FDA is so hard core when it comes to approving the production of drugs. They want to know about the entire process of production from top to bottom and routinely suspend a producer's license, removing product from shelves if there is any doubt as to the safety of their end product. When parts of milligrams can mean the difference between life and death, the risk isn't worth the reward, IMHO.

Insulfated cocaine has a unique problem in that it first needs to be diluted in water in order to properly test, then somehow dried back out into powder before it can be used.

It’s fairly cumbersome and removes a lot of the appeal of the drug. Most casual cocaine users want the experience to be just that, casual. Having to buy a bag of blow then go home and run a chemistry experiment on it is a much different vibe than taking quick bump from some nice new friend you made at the bar.

Most people I know who are casual users have just decided to stop instead of going through the hassle.

I think I'm on the wrong forum. Does anyone know where the 15 year veterans of HN have gone to so I can hang out there?

I’ve been around HN a long time. My cohort gave up the stuff bc of age related concerns and see the contamination as a sign we won’t be walking back that decision.

This falls within the guidelines of offtopic . Has been there since the days of old.

Did you miss the period when everyone was talking about micro-dosing LSD?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com