I'm often asked what got me here. It is, by far, the most common question. As such, it may prove to be the most difficult question to answer.
Heroin is a member of a class of drugs called opiates. Like members of this class are morphine, codeine, thebaine, papaverine and noscapine. You may be familiar with morphine and codeine. These are the only two chemicals extracted from the opium poppy with any appreciable analgesic (pain-reducing) effect alone. This is not to say that the other chemicals are to be scrapped; thebaine is the pre-cursor to better known pain medications such as Hydrocodone (Vicodin) and Oxycodone (Percocet, Oxycontin). Hydrocodone and Oxycodone are considered to be fully-synthetic opioids (not opiates). An opioid includes all natural, synthetic, and semi-synthetic pain relievers. Opiates, on the other hand, refer only to the natural chemicals extracted from the poppy; again, this includes morphine and codeine. Heroin is not an opiate, even; it is a semi-synthetic formulation. When in the human body, Heroin is quickly converted back into its pre-cursor morphine. Subsequently, in urinalysis screening, there is no possible way for one to know if someone took morphine or Heroin. Codeine, another chemical from the poppy, also exits the body as morphine. This (a process in which Heroin goes through, too) is due to first-past metabolism. This is simply a process in which the liver converts the substance back into its originating chemical: morphine.
A frequently unknown fact: a drug test that tests for Opiates will only result in a positive if morphine, codeine or Heroin has been ingested. Semi-synthetics like Hydrocodone and Oxycodone are not synthesized into morphine (partially incorrect: these and other opioids break down into codeine and then result in morphine, however in trace amounts), and therefore require a specialized test to detect its presence. This information applies to NIDA-5 (5-panel) drug tests that only seek appreciable metabolites of Opiates (morphine), Marijuana, PCP, Methamphetamine/amphetamine/MDMA (methylenedioxymethamphetamine) and cocaine. Other tests exist, however, that do test for the metabolites of (semi-)synthetic opioids; but, again, these are normally only used if such use is suspected.
My Story: I was nineteen; a virgin to any intoxicant (alcohol, marijuana or otherwise). I had made a new acquaintance who revealed that he had tried ecstasy for the first time the prior weekend. Naturally, I was left wondering what it would be like. His stories sounded very intriguing. About two weeks later, I further inquire about his experience. It sounded too good to be true.
A few weeks later, I decided I would try it. It began at a local sit-down restaurant, where we split and shared a single pill. This led to no appreciable effects. This set the stage for yet another attempt.
A few weeks more and I had an entire pill to myself. My friends and I were on our way to a local club. We had all already dosed.
The next part is a bit hard to put into words. As we were driving up to the club, we hit a set of rail-road tracks at a pretty high rate of speed. This, in turn, causes me to rise out of my seat; had I known better, I would've realized that this is when it all began. On my way back down from the bounce, I realize that I am feeling different. Dare I say WONDERFUL? I recognize this as the come on. This realization is followed by my saying "Holy Fuck!" an unknown amount of times. This quickly followed by the statement that should've ended it all: "I now understand why people are drug addicts!" Laughter erupted from my friends in the car. Looking back, it should have been a reaction of horror.
I am going to stay on the topic of Heroin, but I felt it necessary to outline my first drug experience. How much of an impact it had on me, and so forth. My "understanding" of drug addiction will be a continue to come up from this point forward. I am positive that this early acceptance is what inevitably kept me using for such a long period of time.
25 September 2007
My Brain... Derailed.
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2 comments:
Since you seem to be like me and are interested in the pharmodynamics of every drug you take, i figured i'd enlighten you a bit in regards to this...
"a drug test that tests for Opiates will only result in a positive if morphine, codeine or Heroin has been ingested."
Not true; while the NIDA-5 standard test does only test for the metabolite morphine.. High amounts of any other opioid can cause reactions in most DEPC regeant tests that will cause "false" positives for natural opiate metabolites. Drugs that have been known to cause this include oxycodone, hydrocodone, hydromorphone, and propoxyphene.
I've actually tested postive for natural opiates when I only had oxycodone in my system. Granted, i was IVing around 440 - 480 mg daily (before my H and fentanyl days). Generally though.. false positives only result when high amounts of synthetic opioid metabolites are present in the system. This is why more potent opioidergic metabolites (by weight) like norbuprenorphine and norfentanyl wont cross react with morphine reagents in opiate UA tests--there simply isn't enough of the drug to interact (this is also why UA of these drugs are very hard in their own right). In contrast however, non-potent drugs (again, by weight) like propoxyphene and hydrocodone are more likely to cause false, cross-reagent reactions on standard opiate tests b/c there are higher amounts of metabolites present in the urine.
Daily use of oxycodone above 50 - 100 mg is very likely to cause a false positive for natural opiates. I'm not aware of the cut off levels in less potent opioids.
You're right. I erroneously made a blanket statement instead of clarifying this fact. Oxycodone, hydrocodone and hydromorphone are all semi-synthetic opiates derived from the various opium alkaloids. When these substances are metabolized, they break down into MINUTE amounts of codeine which, in turn, is further metabolized into morphine. General testing levels for opiates were set at 300ng/mL prior to December 1998; after which, the government raised the detection level to 2000ng/mL primarily to avoid ambiguous test results stemming from poppy seed consumption.
A further break down of test results determines which drug was LIKELY detected. For example, tests that contain both Morphine and Codeine (in a 10:1 ratio) exceeding 10,000ng/mL, Heroin use was likely. It is hard to be sure, though, as Heroin is rapidly converted into 6-acetylmorphine before its ultimate conversion into morphine. The typical detection time of 6-AM is approximately 2-3 hours. A Morphine/Codeine level under 10,000ng/mL indicates recent poppy seed ingestion or possible Heroin use. In cases where only morphine is present, pharmaceutical Morphine is the likely culprit; that is, at levels above 10,000ng/mL. Morphine-only levels below 2000ng/mL prove difficult to determine a likely source.
BTW, isn't meperidine another one that could go either way?
Hadn't heard the propoxyphene one before; I'd be interested in hearing more. With dolopine being a stereoisomer of (dextro)propoxyphene, does this mean that methadone can result in false positives on the NIDA-5?
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