Ellis Wyatt said:
Aggie95 said:
dumb question:
You hear of people hooked on Fentanyl sometimes in conjunction with Meth. Yet, we hear that a lethal dose of Fentanyl could be the size of a grain or two of salt. How do those 2 coincide? How would one take Fentanyl on a "regular" basis without killing themselves with an overdose?
I have heard that drugs have (or at least pot has) become stronger and stronger over the years. I assume that's because the production methods have become more "professional" since so much is streaming across the border. I also assume that coincides with the increase in fentanyl in the drugs. It's like playing Russian Roulette-- a person never knows when their dose will be deadly because there is no standard.
I say this as a person who has never used an illegal drug, but I have lost two extended family members to overdoses since the pandemic hit. Both were longtime drug addicts. I have no idea what specific drugs they were taking when they died, just that both were killed by fentanyl.
Cannabis continues to be selectively bred for specific cannabinoid profiles. In the past seeds were thrown in a field and grown by sun and rain, currently we have very specific feeding and lighting metrics that help dictate more specific profiles.
The primary "stronger" aspect is that growers select for THC dominant strains (cultivars) of cannabis and then trying to reduce cannabinoids that would normally interfere with THC like CBD reducing the high. The uncontrolled sungrown varietals of the past had little control and generally had more CBD present and less THC (depending on harvest date) both reducing the potential high. (This is by no means a comprehensive explanation but as basic as I can generate at the moment)
Cannabis is nothing similar to chemistry and synthetic drugs, unless youre talking about big pharma synthetic THC/etc.
That my current perspective on opioid/heroin/fentanyl is that people got hooked on pharma prescribed specifically dosed painkillers and when the scripts dried up the withdrawals are incredibly difficult and addiction incredibly difficult to overcome.
This leaves victims who trusted their Primary Care Dr (who got vacations paid for by big pharma) bouncing from clinic to clinic and eventually hooking up with street dealers.
Street dealers distribute drugs from cartels with unspecified quantities of myriad chemicals, Rarely tested.
One of the biggest positive efforts to reduce death and other negatives of street drugs is an emphasis on testing and education.
Another step in the right direction, possibly, is to provide tested and clean drugs cheaper than the cartels. Then incentivize reduction of use over time and eventually eliminating it.
Imagine the government incentivized street cleaning and other for "free" drugs instead of incentivizing stealing catalytic converters and other crime? Meth/speed heads would have these streets clean in seconds.
