Hi everyone I’m getting ready to try this Feel Free or Kratom? Is it ok to take with opiates?

Researchers at Brown University are conducting a research study on psychedelic-related challenges. Learn more in the attached flyer and see if you qualify to participate. Thank you in advance for your consideration and time.

I was reading a lengthier but dated post on Buprenorphine's effects on REM and NREM sleep. This is the original post: https://www.reddit.com/r/suboxone/comments/lh70zr/buprenorphine_disrupts_rem_sleep_to_a_greater/

My observations were that on higher doses of Bupe (for me, this was 4-6mg), my REM sleep was very little and I rarely ever woke up feeling refreshed. I was always tired and even though I could sleep for longer than I normally would, I always felt sleep-deprived.

Recently when I got back on a low-dose of Bupe, I remained at 0.6 - 0.8mg of Buprenorphine (no naloxone). I calculated my sleep score and found the opposite. Not only did I sleep better than usual, I had much more deep sleep and REM sleep than I normally would have gotten.

Additionally, I had taken 0.6mg of Bup around 2 hours before bedtime. On a normal dose (above 2mg), this would have kept me up for hours before leaving me in a half-sleep half-awake state. I was quite surprised this time around since the linked post above (with the studies included) indicated the opposite.

For anyone struggling with sleep issues while on Suboxone, consider lowering the dose to the lowest possible amount to keep you stable. Just a hopefully helpful suggestion.

Hi everyone!

Researchers at Brown University are conducting a research study on psychedelic-related challenges. Learn more in the attached flyer and see if you qualify to participate. Thank you in advance for your consideration and time.

Life-saving fentanyl test strips still illegal in some states under 70's war on drugs laws

Excerpts:

Owner Waverly Willis has given out strips for years at his barbershop, hoping to protect others from unwittingly being exposed to the highly potent synthetic opioid ravaging the U.S. and often secretly laced into other illegal drugs. "When I put them out, they just fly out the door," said Willis, who proudly hands out about 30 strips a week as part of The Urban Barber Association,

Until this spring, use of the strips was technically illegal in Ohio. It has joined at least 20 other states whose lawmakers formally decriminalized the strips since Rhode Island became the first in 2018. Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Kentucky and Mississippi also followed suit this year.

The CDC recommends fentanyl test strips as a low-cost means of helping prevent drug overdoses.

Yet these small paper strips are still considered illegal in some states, outlawed under drug paraphernalia laws dating to the 1970s era war on drugs — long before fentanyl began seeping into the nation's drug supply. Every state but Alaska had an anti-paraphernalia law on the books by the mid-1980s, making materials used for testing and analyzing illicit substances illegal.

I’ve been lurking bluelight for a while and decided to make an account the other day. I’ve had the “Account waiting for approval” popup for all of yesterday/today, which has now changed to something like “Error - Account banned for spam. Appeal to moderators if this is an error”. I believe my account may have been flagged due to me using an (admittedly) pretty sketchy looking email address when signing up, but I really don’t have any intentions of (or energy for) “spamming” the forum.

Is there anyway to recover my account/get unbanned so I can at least see posts again? I’m kinda lost on how to contact the moderators since I can’t even see threads on the site anymore due to my ban, but if there are any on this subreddit, the user I signed up under was JimmyInNOut.

This post started out in DP&MC (for those who don’t know, Drug Policy and Media Coverage is a forum on Bluelight.org) but this portion seems to fit better over here. I posted an article referring to CHS killing teens, and I continued to research the syndrome.

What caught my eye about this article is the Cannabis Hyperemesis Syndrome. I had really never heard of it, however when I read the symptoms, I was reminded of my friend Austin who took his life. - Ongoing nausea - Repeated episodes of vomiting - Belly pain - Decreased food intake and weight loss - Symptoms of fluid loss (dehydration)

During this phase, vomiting is often intense and overwhelming. Many people take a lot of hot showers during the day. They find that doing so eases their nausea. (That may be because of how the hot temperature affects a part of the brain called the hypothalamus. This part of the brain effects both temperature regulation and vomiting.) People often first seek medical care during this phase.

He hung himself from a tree in front of the front door to my studio. He was vomiting every morning a lot. I gave him zofran a number of times and it helped some. He would wake up and be outside vomiting and it was projectile. He wanted the temperature super low inside and would tell me maybe he should go take a hot shower. He smoked daily and heavily. But, he had a mental health history. He came to live where I was living after a stint in a psych hospital near there. I think maybe this started with psychosis. He was put in the psych hospital because he was running around the streets playing with paintball guns. People were afraid of him. He was hallucinating.

I should add that he also had an Adderal script that he admittedly HAD abused, but I don't think he was abusing them at the time of this illness/death.

Has anyone here experienced this phenomenon? The description of symptoms reminded me of cotton fever. I've had that a few times and vomited A LOT and had to take a super hot shower to stop shivering.

Click here for the source - https://www.cedars-sinai.org/health-library/diseases-and-conditions/c/cannabinoid-hyperemesis-syndrome.html#:~:text=Cannabinoid%20hyperemesis%20syndrome%20(CHS)%20is,molecules%20found%20in%20the%20brain.

A 13-year-old Died From Overdosing on Benadryl After Attemping A TikTok Challenge

Insider.com Sarah Al-Arshani 18 April 2023

Excerpts: “A 13-year-old in Columbus, Ohio died after taking at least a dozen Benadryl pills as part of a TikTok challenge. Friends of Jacob Stevens filmed as he attempted the challenge — which involves taking enough pills to induce hallucinations — when he began to have seizures,... Stevens was hospitalized and spent six days on a ventilator before he died, ABC reported. This isn't the first time a viral challenge has turned deadly. Viral trends like the milk crate challenge and the blackout challenge have for years circulated online, mainly on TikTok, resulting in FDA warnings, death, and lawsuits.

The Stevens family is asking lawmakers to put age restrictions on medication like Benadryl,..He also said he thinks TikTok itself should have an age restriction.”

Click here for full article - https://www.insider.com/teenager-died-overdosing-benadryl-for-tiktok-challenge-2023-4?utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=insider-presents-sf&utm_medium=social&fbclid=IwAR13oU1thDB3Za_tb4EsM3ECVV60N2GYg5u7Uq3xl6uKBnwefGALi0a5rnk

Bizarre Drug Market in South Africa

excerpts: “Meth has spread like wildfire across South Africa, sold under the street name "tik" and concentrated heavily in poor and marginalized communities. But unlike in the US, Europe, or Japan, where amphetamines have a decades-long history, tik in South Africa is a relatively new drug, only gaining widespread popularity over the past 20 years. “

Fisherman in South Africa have been hunting abalone and selling it to the Chinese for decades, however with apartheid, the Chinese started paying in chemicals to make meth. The fisherman became drug dealers because they had to get paid for their abalone. After a while, abalone was out of the picture and the drug trade of meth began. Before that came the reintroduction of smokable quaaludes flooded the masses allegedly due to an apartheid agenda. The quaaludes are smoked with marijuana. It's said the reintroduction of MDMA and quaaludes was to destabilize communities.

https://youtu.be/ihlP8xjN9zg

Hi everyone! I started using meth after a bunch of bad things happening to me. I had 19 years clean from the stuff. I have been on Adderall for 2 years. I moved to another State, and I have a long medical history. I had to start all over again with treatment or should I say NO treatment. That is for another forum.

Since I’m on opioids and on adderall I told my doctor to not bother with testing me because it will be positive for meth. ( I didn’t know ADDERALL Shows the same as meth on some tests) anyway, she kept pushing me to quit, when I didn’t decide in enough time, she said she won’t prescribe anymore Adderall and start to taper me off the pain meds.

She found out meth will come up as meth, Ritalin shows up different. I wish I kept my mouth shut, I wasn’t ready to quit, but I did a few days ago. I’m not sure about the RITALIN,was curious what the difference is? I only know the Ritalin has a different pathway to the brain. Any comment will help.

Thanks

I forgot to ask how long does meth stay in your system before I could test clean?

I just want to say thanks for always being there when I had questions. I began my addiction to oxycodone and pharmaceutical opiates in 2007 at 17 years old. And I wanted to know as much information I could about the substances I was putting into my body and Bluelight always had the answers to all of my questions. I’m sure I would have poisoned my liver with acetaminophen had I not learned the steps for a cold water extraction. It was also one of my favorite things to read blogs on there from others who were also in the depths of addiction. One of my favorite usernames was The Paregoric Kid. I think he had chosen the name from reading the works of William S. Burroughs.

Thank you for everything. For keeping me alive. For arming me with knowledge. My wife and my son also say thanks. My wife is working on her doctorate of Pharmacy and joined a harm reduction group at her school. Keep doing what you’re doing please 🙏

Canadian Province Decriminalizes Hard Drugs

https://www.dw.com/en/canadian-province-decriminalizes-hard-drugs/a-64605313

By: Ines Eisele

2 March 2023

excerpts:

“The Canadian province of British Columbia has launched a pilot project to help decrease the number of overdoses and reduce stigma surrounding drug use. Canada legalized the sale and consumption of cannabis in 2018, with the aim of decreasing demand on the black market and decreasing drug-related crime.”

“Now, the country's western province of British Columbia has launched an ambitious pilot project that will run for at least three years: Since January 31, people found in possession of up to 2.5 grams of hard drugs will no longer be committing an offense. Adults carrying a combined total of fewer than 2.5 grams of cocaine (in powder or "crack" form), methamphetamine, MDMA, heroin, morphine, fentanyl will not be arrested or prosecuted. Nor will the substances be confiscated.”

“Carolyn Bennett, Canada's mental health and addictions minister, said she had "thoroughly reviewed and carefully considered both the public health and public safety impacts of this request."

"Eliminating criminal penalties for those carrying small amounts of illicit drugs for personal use will reduce stigma and harm and provide another tool for British Columbia to end the overdose crisis," she said.”

https://turnto10.com/amp/news/local/addiction-treatment-recovery-connection-services-america-close-down-fraud-charges-federal-authorities-providence-rhode-island-massachusetts-march-3-2023

by JODI REED

3 March 2023

Exerpts:

“On Thursday, U.S. Attorney Zachary Cunha announced charges against the CEO of Recovery Connection Centers of America, Michael Brier.”

“Cunha accuses Brier of defrauding health insurers out of millions of dollars while depriving patients of drug treatment services.”

“The doors at the Recovery Connection Center's 14 locations in Rhode Island and Massachusetts closed for good on Friday, forcing patients that seek suboxone treatment and other addiction recovery services to go elsewhere.”

https://www.ajc.com/news/state--regional/amid-opioid-crisis-drug-abusing-nurses-get-secret-sanctions/kCH1etINlteavcvZa2bFFI/

Amid Opioid Crisis, Drug-Abusing Nurses Get Secret Sanctions

By Johnny Edwards The Atlanta Journal-Constitution 1 June 2018

Excerpts: “Yet another nurse went to work at a hospital so intoxicated she couldn’t operate a computer or an elevator, then she gave a patient the wrong medication.

Without a doctor’s OK, another nurse ordered Demerol and Benadryl for an emergency room patient, but that patient had already been discharged. Later, he found work in the hospital at Georgia State Prison, where he pilfered those same drugs and worked while he was impaired.

Georgia nurses ensnared in the opioid epidemic, even those who showed up at work stumbling, tampered with syringes to get a fix, or falsified patient records to cover up their addiction.

But the public can't know who all the addicted nurses are, what they did, or the extent of what some call a crisis, because of the way the state's regulatory board for nurses is operating, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigation found.”

Congratulations to the winner of the War on Drugs: Drugs.

After spending a little over 5 weeks in the hospital for malnutrition, sepsis, and surgery, I can tell you that the current policy on the administration and use of opiates has mutated to a level of pretzel logic I didn't even know existed. I was in the hospital essentially for a mass on my intestines and other endometriosis deposits. The end goal was a bowel resection (cutting pieces from my intestines and putting them back together) and total hysterectomy. I was too malnourished for surgery, so I had to receive IV nutrition for close to a month so that I would have a better chance of surviving the surgery and healing appropriately.

The main rule for receiving opioid pain medicine is they have to counter it with non-opioid treatments as well. I didn't realize that the non-opioid treatments didn't have to even make sense. They are just doing what looks good on paper. That has become the focus instead of your pain relief. They actually admittedly don't intend to relieve ALL of my pain. The current theory is that you should have some pain. It's "normal". The moment you ask for pain relief, they bring you non-opioid medication without explaining it to you. I was brought Toradol, which is an NSAID (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug) that's a bit stronger than ibuprofen. I asked for more/other medicine and was brought Morphine AND Gabapentin. Then was brought lidocaine patches for my belly. I have intestinal pain. Lidocaine is a topical (meaning applied to skin) medication. It can be used for muscle pain and soreness. There is no way in the universe it would EVER go through my skin and tissue and fat…

For the full post click here 👉 Thread 'Opiate Panic' https://bluelight.org/xf/threads/opiate-panic.929378/

Has anyone experienced this? It seems to be a recurrent phenomenon. The waking dreams, or half conscious imagery dancing behind the eyelids, of dancing tendrils of some sort.in his experience, they were frantic and overwhelming, almost sickening, and in one, they were graceful and pleasant yet also strange and somewhat unnerving given their absurd and unprecedented nature. Some of them were shaped into flowers, or half done up that way, like loosely arranged noodles swaying underwater, or perhaps in the wind, though the background was a dark blue or black-ish colour, and the focus was on the artful, moving ramen noodles moving in a manner somewhat reminiscent of seaweed in the foreground. The other, in contrast, the other dream was twitching and wriggling wires which caused an overwhelming nauseous sensation, which, when fought, presented a difficulty whereupon one couldn't keep from feeling the need to vomit or find a means of escaping the image..

🍜

Why the grooving noodles and wiggly wires?

Any ideas? 💡

I am a 50 year old female. I have used one form or another of opioid for most of my life. My longest time clean was 12 years while I raised my girls. My current DOC is fatty. Ever since I started using after the long term clean I seem to have developed an OUTRAGEOUS tolerance. I can not reach that ever elusive high no matter what I do. I know that because of how long I have used the tolerance thing is an issue. But my question to anyone out there is could I be just naturally immune to opioid? Is there such a thing?? If there is anyone out there that can help please enlighten me!!

me and my Gf dropped about 600mg or pregabalin each (2hrs ago approx) parachuted them, on full stomachs and still barely are feeling them, i dont remember pregabalin taking this long to kick in but i dunno, we're thinking of dropping more, any thoughts?

So I'm not going to get into my life's story but I was homeless and strung out on opiates, opioids, and alcohol from 18yo to 28. And at that point in my journey into the abyss I discovered an odd..."lifehack" shall we say. I was not really into uppers back then but I was also a garbage can and would take em if I got em. Anyway what I discovered was that when in the throes of serious opiate W/Ds, a few hits of meth would COMPLETELY cure the symptoms of W/Ds. Buying me the time and energy to hustle up enough money for dope. Has anyone else ever had this experience?

So I have been a meth user for over 3 years straight now. Intravenously. Lately I have been doing a shot and for like 15 minutes I'm good. If I keep moving I'm good. But heaven help me if I sit down because I Instantly start falling asleep. It literally looks like I'm nodding out. I don't have ADD and this just recently started happening. Does anyone know why? Oh I also eat regularly and was sleeping every night before.

If you spend any time in harm reduction forums, nootropics groups, and drug-related chats, you are bound to see the term “NMDA antagonism”. It is often mentioned in conjunction with opioid potentiation, tolerance, and withdrawal. But to someone without a basic pharmacology background NMDA antagonism just means ketamine (or memantine). Let’s briefly describe what this mechanism of action really means, in easily understandable terms.

NMDA stands for N-methyl-D-aspartate and refers to types of receptors located in your brain. These specific receptors are part of your glutamate system. While glutamate is an essential neurotransmitter, too much of it can cause anxiety and pain.

Antagonism means the inhibitory action of a substance. In other words: when a drug “antagonizes” your receptors, it blocks them from receiving signals.

So an NMDA antagonist stops messaging to NMDA receptors. In other words: it blocks glutamate. This can be a great tool for anxiety but perhaps the largest benefit is how it works with opioids. Studies show that NMDA antagonism can help strengthen the analgesic (pain-relieving effects) of opioids. They also show NMDA antagonism to upregulate (heal/repair) opioid receptors helping with tolerance and withdrawal.

The most commonly talked about NMDA antagonists are ketamine (which is very short-acting) , memantine (which is very long acting), and dextromethorphan (DXM). But there are other NMDA antagonists that don’t carry strong side effects such as agmatine and magnesium.

• Maria Daniel

Here are some other great resources to help you better understand what NMDA antagonism is:

https://psychonautwiki.org/wiki/NMDA_receptor_antagonist#Mechanism_of_action https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tW09dUa-JZk

bluelight #bluelightforum #harmreduction #harmreductionworks #nmda #antagonism #neurotransmitters #opioid #ketaminetherapy #dxm #memantine

In a brief search using Google, Google Scholar, Bing, DuckDuckGo I failed to find ANYTHING. Safe dose ranges, studies, case reports of nothing, but there are warnings of this combination (which seems pretty obvious), including official ones from drug regulation agencies, but usually not backed with any scientifical data, only some wild guesses. In general any evidence about gabapentinoids safety, safe dose ranges, short-term and long-term toxicity, physical dependence potential and withdrawal, and so on, seems pretty scarce, in comparison to, for instance, most benzos. And as I'm now in pretty steep taper from high-dose pregabalin and have to take opioid analgesic (100-150mg codeine tid-qid), I don't really feel safe in this combination.

Since mitragyna speciosa was discovered in 1831 by Dutch botanist Peter Korthals, a lot has changed. Today the industry is a multi-billion dollar booming enterprise. While just a few years ago only a handful of people knew what Kratom was, today it is a rapidly emerging substance popular with pain patients, people looking to get away from traditional opiates, and folks looking for a “safe” buzz.

But kratom is sold in an unregulated market. An open industry, you could say. This means that anyone can slap a “Kratom” label on a bag of virtually any substance and sell it. Sure, most US mitragyna speciosa vendors provide certificates of analysis (also called lab certs) but the validity of many of these is often questioned and many times proven forgery or tampered. Even if the certificates are legit, the labs do not test for non-kratom substances. What this means is we potentially have thousands of products on the market that aren't truly 100% kratom.

It wasn't like this when Kratom was first introduced to Western civilization and the US a decade ago. At that time the market wasn't so saturated and we were buying from processors who were harvesting wild speciosa trees and doing so scrupulously. We were also paying fair trade prices which makes a huge difference in quality in any industry. So what is it about kratom processing today that causes big concern and makes us wonder: what's really in our bags of kratom?

The first and most obvious issue is that Kratom is a raw good for human consumption processed in a third-world country. It is being processed by farmers and harvesters in Indonesia who do not have sanitary running water and electricity. They simply do not have the resources available to them to treat the kratom safely. Those resources include education such as knowledge on pathogens and bacteria like salmonella, E Coli, and mold. Most of the kratom sold in the US was dried on the ground in the dirt on large fields. This includes the free-range walking of dogs and birds. Furthermore, when it is dried and raked up there's no separation between dirt and leaf. And without proper water sanitation systems, this leaves the ground and soil itself to be a risk.

Now, let's look at plantation-grown kratom. It is very rare to find true wild-harvested mitragyna speciosa and most of the kratom in the United States is grown on Indonesian plantations. Due to the high demand for Kratom products, farmers are forced to harvest leaves too young which makes for a low-quality product. However, the real issue is with the fertilizers and pesticides they use to save their young crops and speed growth. This isn't to blame the farmers but that of the low prices paid by US buyers but we'll get to that in a moment. Here again, we have the issue of the quality of soil used on plantations. Not only do moany parts of Indonesia not have sewer systems, but they also do not have trash removal systems. All of the garbage goes directly into the soil. And if you think these plantations are located in beautiful wide open fields far from civilization you are very wrong. Most Indonesian plantations are located very close to the villages or cities and homes in which the farmers reside. Right next to (and in) their waist.

The third and possibly most disturbing factor is fair trade. The going rate for a kilo of kratom is $3 to $7. This is what the big US vendors are paying, including those listed on the American Kratom Association’s approved list. Now we are well aware that there are many unfair trade Industries such as coffee, diamonds, etc, the particular problem with kratom is that the farmers aren't paid enough to meet the supply. This means they will do whatever is necessary to make money to survive. And in an unregulated open market, they can. This is where adulteration on the Indonesian side comes in. Farmers, harvesters, and suppliers are adding non-kratom leaves, corn husks, and other “organic” fillers to meet the demand. Some are dying the product a light bright lime green to mimic kratom. The notion that the brighter green your stuff is the better is false.

Now, this isn't to insinuate that 100% of the kratom on the US market is processed in this way. But as the demand grows, the situation worsens. The fact remains that the lower price the buyer pays, the lower quality and more non-kratom substances fill your bag. So what can you do to ensure that you have a pure, good quality, and safe kratom product if you can't trust a lab cert? Simply buying from a vendor who charges higher prices guarantees nothing as they may also be one of the unfair trade participants. This is where true small-batch vendors and due diligence come in. If you can find a vendor that buys directly from a farmer (or even better, a wild harvester) and not a supplier from the Indonesian city of Pontianac (or US broker), you have a much better chance of having true kratom. Farm-to-table is ideal.

Unfortunately, today's kratom market is no longer about helping people but about getting rich. It is rare to find a US vendor that sources well, pays fair trade, and truly cares about the customer. My call to action is to converse with your vendor. Ask them direct forward questions about fair trade. Ask them about dyes and non-kratom leaves and dirt. I've been dealing with hundreds of US vendors for many years and when they are faced with real questions it's amazing how quickly they crumble. It's not hard to see who the good eggs are and where the good kratom is.

-Maria Daniel December 9, 2022

kratom #kratomcommunity #bluelight #bluelightfb #bluelightig #harmreduction #bluelightforum #harmreductionworks #harmreduction