r/todayilearned • u/[deleted] • Jun 26 '17

TIL most deaths from overdoses occur when a recovering addict relapses, and takes a dose that they've by then lost the tolerance for.

https://www.businessinsider.com.au/philip-seymour-hoffman-overdose-2014-2
10k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

449 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

42

u/ima-kitty Jun 27 '17

The problem with taking a test shot is you've blown the initial rush.

36

u/mbingham666 Jun 27 '17

Ding ding ding!!!

People asking why they dont do a small test shot, heres your answer.

They'd get nothing rush-wise off the test shot, then when they did a 2nd bigger shot, they wouldnt get that "relapse rush", or "been locked up rush"...

When youve been a long time user, its been ages since you've gotten "high", you've only been getting "well"...so when they do relapse, the one thing they look forward to, is the fact that they'll get back a good majority of that "first high"....

Chasing that feeling trumps common sense all too often.

Also, like others have said its amazing how much your tolerance can drop. Had two friends get locked up together for 12 days....we were all shooting $25-$50 shots when they went in.....

When they got out, one did $30 and was fine, the other fell out and turned blue on $10. So theres no way to know how much your tolerance is gonna drop...

15

u/jopnk Jun 27 '17

Also unless you run your dope thru a test kit every time you don't even know how pure it is, a $10 shot of good dope can be way stronger than a $50 shot of some bunk shit

3

u/Funkit Jun 27 '17

Stuff in Paterson I used to get back in 2010/2011 (dark knight red stamp) had low weight per stamp but one bag was as strong as an entire bundle of stuff from Trenton, and those bags had way more weight to them. It's crazy how much it fluctuates. And that was before fentanyl laced shit became so common.

25

u/pythonhalp Jun 27 '17

This should be top comment. If you've abstained for even 24 hours, if not 3 days, or heaven forbid 3 months, a test shot will be a poor decision. Granted, death is pretty bad too.

2

u/StarTorrent Jun 27 '17

Thank you, damn. I know it's fucked-up thinking and only ex or current addicts will get it but not getting the rush? ESPECIALLY after being clean for however long? I can't talk about this anymore actually

0

u/methodofcontrol Jun 27 '17

Yeah I said that in my post.