Powerful Drug Combinations Found In North Carolina Overdoses

New research shows that in North Carolina, opioids are almost always a factor in life-threatening overdoses. Yet three-fourths of people who die of overdoses here tend to have more than one drug in their system, according to new research.

Fentanyl Added to Opioids

The new trend of mixing drugs more often correlated to the introduction of Fentanyl and Carfentanil to the world of underground drugs. These synthetic opioids are 100 to 10,000 times as strong as morphine, respectively. And during the COVID-19 epidemic, it seemed that these drugs were being added to street drugs like heroin often, which inevitably causes overdoses.

Faulty Overdose Prevention

Opioid users are known to self-medicate in an attempt to avoid overdoses. When worried about fentanyl, for example, some drug users anecdotally decide to use a certain amount of uppers such as cocaine to "prevent" overdoses. However, there is no evidence that using multiple drugs will prevent an overdose.

It can, however, complicate matters if a person has a medical emergency. People who use "uppers" and "downers" together are more likely to have a heart attack or stroke. Adding more drugs to a strained body can be a recipe for disaster.

This is not a new trend; meth users have often described using Xanax or opioids to help them when they're coming down from an intense high. In addition, many people with addictions to uppers have trouble sleeping and abuse drugs such as barbiturates to help with it.

Harm Reduction For Opioid Users

Harm reduction techniques can help people with opioid use disorders if they have trouble ceasing drug use. In addition, loved ones and the drug user can carry naloxone, an opioid overdose reversal drug, to help them if there is an overdose.

Opioid users are more vulnerable to overdose, COVID-19, HIV, and other diseases due to risky sexual behavior or sharing needles. Some opioid users now use testing kits to test for the presence of fentanyl as an adulterant. Using clean needles is also essential to prevent the spread of disease and infections.

No harm reduction is 100% effective, however.

Getting Sober Using MAT

Do you or somebody you love have an opioid use disorder? Learn more about how Medication-Assisted Treatment, the "gold standard" of treatment, can help you reclaim your life again. Call Solas Health today at (910) 295-7246 to learn more about our recovery programs.