The 'dangers' of speedballs: myth or reality?

[Fat Pie]

This is a short essay I put together on the supposed myth that the mixture of Cocaine and Heroin known as a 'speedball' to many, is a deadly combination of drugs, and seeing if this rumour has any basis in either logic or reality:

‘Speedballing’, as we all know, is the mixing of Cocaine and Heroin, which is then subsequently taken together (either via injection, snorting or even smoking, through smoking crack and then 'Chasing the Dragon', or vice-versa). There is a prodigious fear of this combo, both in the straight community and the drug taking community. Heroin is seen as dangerous in itself, but the combination of Heroin and Cocaine seems to be considered a volatile mixture, although no one can explain why.

Some articles explain that Cocaine can mask the symptoms of a Heroin overdose, allowing it to set in later. If this is true then what is deadly about the combination? Surely if one has OD'd on Heroin, one has OD'd, and whatever is delaying it is simply preventing that person from falling unconscious for five minutes or so. What exactly is bad about that? It doesn't enhance the overdose (as some believe), and if anything, gives a person a little more time to breath or remain conscious, and thus get help when they do fall over and stop breathing. At the very least it increases the chances of them surviving by supposedly prolonging consciousness throughout the first, initial rush of Heroin throughout the body (and therefore the strongest). If a delayed overdose effect is going to occur, then surely it is the Heroin, and not the Cocaine mixed in with it, that is going to cause an overdose.

What damages this rumour most, however, is the fact that Cocaine is merely a stimulant, not an opiate blocker. Whilst something like Naltrexone can prevent an overdose, it does so not because it is a stimulant, but because it blocks the opiate receptors in the brain, rendering the Heroin unable to release the endorphins of the brain and consequently depress the CNS system enough to stop a person breathing. However, successive doses of Naltrexone are required to stop the opiate binding with the receptors in the brain, until the opiate drug has broken down enough in the blood to render it harmless (hence where the idea of Cocaine delaying an overdose of Heroin may come from, since after a dose of Naltrexone wears out, the Morphine in the system will once again bind to the receptors, and if high enough will cause loss of consciousness and cessation of breathing once more).

Cocaine, on the other hand, is just a stimulant. One concludes through false logic that a stimulant can keep a depressant's effects at bay by 'stimulating' the individual involved, but all this means is that the heart is stimulated to beat faster. In the brain, where the actually messages for breathing are being relayed, all the Cocaine is able to do is release dopamine from the brain's dopamine receptors. The Morphine molecules will still stay very much binded to the opiate receptors of the brain, and if numerous enough, will inevitably cause the individual to stop breathing through depression of the Central Nervous System. If this wasn't compelling enough evidence that Cocaine is useless at preventing a Heroin overdose, there have been a slew of cases where, when an individual suffered a Heroin OD, his friends would inject him with several doses of Cocaine, to try and 'stimulate' his body into consciousness. Needless to say, this was unsuccessful, and the person died anyway (this once happened to a famous celebrity).

Another rumour that persists about the 'speedball', is that taking a stimulant and a depressant at the same time somehow upsets the balance of chemicals in the body, as if there is a delicate balance in our bloodstream that must either go up, or down; introducing both at the same time might 'confuse' our bodies somehow. Of course, there is no evidence to suggest that stimulants and depressants mixed together act in volatile or dangerous way when introduced to our bloodstreams, and there certainly is no 'balance' of stimulants and depressants in our bloodstreams that need to be maintained. On the contrary, mixing a depressant and a depressant can have devastating effects. One old piece of junkie lore was that combining alcohol and Heroin was deadly. Unfortunately, this rumour died out after the 40's, but rather than being a rumour, it is very much a fact. Junkies and users alike need to start repeating this 'rumour' to each other again, because lives are at stake, and lack of information can kill as easily as false information can.

Alcohol is a CNS (Central Nervous System) depressant; when mixed with another depressant, Heroin, for example (which, like alcohol, affects the part of our brains that regulate breathing), the results can be deadly. The individual will lose consciousness, stop breathing, and rapidly suffocate. An individual can lose consciousness and stop breathing for up to an hour if this happens: it takes approximately 4 minutes for the brain to die from lack of oxygen. Thus, time is of the essence in these cases, and medical attention is required immediately. One man is said to have died after drinking alcohol and then smoking Heroin, so this is certainly not an issue to be restricted to those who use the needle only. The same warning for those who mix depressants is easily noticeable in (but still rarely connected up with) cases where alcohol and depressants such as benzodiazepines and barbiturates are involved. A prime example of legal drugs causing factually documented, scientifically proven, and above all, logical, harm to victims; not fairytales invented to make combining two of the supposedly 'hardest' and 'dangerous' drugs (i.e. Heroin and Cocaine), look even worse than taking the two alone. A sort of greater-than-the-sum-of-its-parts tale that turns pretty pathetic piles of powder from ground-up flowers into the most evil, diabolical substances man has ever know, made by the Devil himself to snare mankind, the same way he ensnared Adam & Eve, in order to make up for his failure in tempting Jesus, the substances men make millions off and the substances men die for, kill for and go to jail for.

The main fact is that in a mixture of Cocaine and Heroin, the Cocaine is the only substance likely to do damage, by stimulating the heart and causing it to beat rapidly/erratically. This is why, although Heroin users can persist for decades with their abuse, and never show any signs of ill health caused by that substance (in itself), Cocaine stimulates, and therefore wears out, the heart. As a consequence, Cocaine/Crack Cocaine users can find themselves suffering from heart probelms later on in life, after several years of sustained abuse. Overdoses on 'speedballs' can happen, of course (I'm not saying they can't), but if an OD does occur, it will not be the 'speedball' mixture that does it; it will be a concentration of Heroin that is either to pure or too high that does it.

Of course, the best way to dispel a rumour about a drug is to try it yourself - hence all the DARE and 'Just Say No' kids had revelations, but from then on didn't trust anything that anyone had to say, and ended up being arrested, OD'ing or dying, only to be held up as pictures on 'told-you-so' posters by the idiots that put them in that position in the first place by lying to them, instead of just being straight, to the point and truthful, which would have prevented this 'lost generation' drugs crap in the first place! I have tried 'speedballs' on several occasions over several days. I enjoyed them, but didn't become addicted to them, which is probably the greatest danger those two drugs combined will ever pose to anyone. They're too expensive, and often too hard to get hold of at the same time to really become a habit, unless you're rich and have really good connections - even then, most people chose a single drug, and stick to it. I enjoy 'speedballs' at special occasions, if I can get hold of them, and I think they're fantastic. Has anyone else experienced 'speedballs' in any form (smoked, snorted, plugged or shot?), and would like to share their experiences, would anyone like to comment on the article, what they liked or disliked, what they agreed or didn't agree with, what they found wrong, missing or incorrect about the information provided (please provide links to proof, or post proof in their posts if this is the case), and does anyone have any further questions about information in the article I've written?

Thanks for reading/contributing.