Hacker News Reader

Comment by raincom | Hacker News Reader

Be careful dealing with federal agents and federal agencies. They can get you for "lying to federal agents". Always have a lawyer next to you, so that this lawyer can take notes, thereby preventing you from being charged under "trumped up charges". I don't know why you are exploring this area, unless you want to spend some time in some federal penitentiary.

View on HN

Good advice. I know there have been situations where federal agencies have turned out to be "the bad guys", but I guess I'm optimistic that they are generally smart, well intentioned, and interested in some of the same outcomes that I'm talking about.

As to why I'm exploring this, it's just a topic I've been thinking about lately. My daughter is starting college in the fall and they've had a lot of deaths over the last few years from fentanyl in pot. I plan to send her with a bunch of fentanyl test strips. If she ends up using them for herself or friends or other random college kids, it could very realistically save a life. Depending on how that goes, I'm also looking at a program to get fentanyl test strips to college kids for free on a larger scale.

Fyi, Fentanyl strips are not full proof. This is because the amount of Fentanyl mixed is so small, there is high likelihood that no Fentanyl is picked up in the tested sample. In other words, high chance of false negatives. Test kits + narcan on hand is the best way to be safe.

That's good to know. I've only done a little initial research around this. I ordered some test strips from a manufacture called MD-Bio (https://mdbio.com). I'll be sure to review all their instructions and safety info.

Out of curiosity, are you saying that a Fentanyl level can be so low that it's undetectable by the test strips, but still high enough to kill someone?

I would surmise that it’s possible for fentanyl to be in one part of the “drug” but not the part that is necessarily used on the test strip?

First, fentanyl is only one of many adjuvants that are mixed with illegal street drugs. Far more exotic compounds exist and are circulating. The issue is that illegal drug labs aren’t necessarily mixing the adjuvant in correctly. There can be “hot spots” where a granule of the toxic drug is not properly distributed, leading to some part of a sample having a vastly higher concentration than others.

So when you test your drugs with the test strip, if the hot spot isn’t in the test sample, you’re gonna die. And many of the adjuvants do not resolve with Narcan.

There is no way to reduce the risk of illegally produced drugs to a tolerable level in today’s environment. Don’t kid yourself. Tell you daughter she runs a serious risk of death even with testing. This shit is no joke.

Thanks for the extra details here. I can see how challenging it would be to know with a high degree of certainty that a drug was truly safe just using test strips. But it seems like the test strips are a practical, relatively low cost option that, while not perfect, could improve the status quo.

Test strips aren't the only option that I'm investigating. I know there are some facilities that will do lab tests to check for fentanyl and other dangerous additives. That might end up being a better approach.

I have family and friends with pharmaceutical industry, chemistry, and medical/healthcare backgrounds that I've reached out to for advice on the issue, especially the question of weather it's possible to safely use the test strips with a low risk of some kind of exposure.

No, I meant what Gymbeaux said.

Since Fentanyl is so potent, it's mixed in such low volume. The dosage is still high enough to kill you due to the potency.

Let's assume the desired drug to fentanyl ratio is 1000:1 by volume. When you take a small random sample of this, there's a good chance that 0 parts of Fentanyl have been selected in this random sample. You'll get a clean test result, even though the drug contains lethal amounts of Fentanyl.

most test kits properly instruct you on this, but you can dissolve your entire dose, or the entire batch, in water, test that, then either consume like that or let the water evaporate

in other words, testing a portion doesn't consume that portion, so you can literally test and then consume the same dose

stay safe

> interested in some of the same outcomes

You're being very optimistic there. For a lot of people "higher up", not just in law enforcement, extra deaths as a side effect of drug-handling is a feature, not a bug.

"lot of deaths over the last few years from fentanyl in pot."

Can you share a case where this has been confirmed? There was some hysteria in Connecticut last year, but my understanding is that this has never actually happened. I'd love to see a pointer to a coroner's report on a case of accidental fentanyl ingestion from laced pot having led to an overdose.

I have seen cases of fentanyl test strips coming up positive, but only with incidental contamination rather than anything in concentrations that are actually hazardous. Fentanyl decomposes at under 300 degrees and pot burns at 450, so it is not actually a viable route to ingestion.

I'll try to find a good source to back up the claim. The statement was made in a verbal, in-person presentation by the deputy chief of the university police, who was told by the city coroner. But for all I know, he could have made it up in an attempt to scare the kids.

>But for all I know, he could have made it up in an attempt to scare the kids.

Yet you just unquestioningly publicly stated it as fact, so what does that make you?

>My daughter is starting college in the fall and they've had a lot of deaths over the last few years from fentanyl in pot.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com