Posted on 11/11/2017 2:33:20 PM PST by Morgana
Drugs that are harmful on contact are not victimless - but I don't believe that heroin is such a drug, your colorful urban legends notwithstanding.
And certainly nobody was ever harmed by touching pot.
Oh come on! It's Saturday night, we want to see ya'lls brilliant gung fu battles!
Opiates (other than transdermal patches like fentanyl) are generally not absorbed through the skin. But you would have to apply thr patch directly to your skin.
Summin' ain't right here.
Which is what I agreed to several posts ago.
Consult your police reports and tell me if coming into contact with a PERSON under the influence of fentanyl and not the drug itself will cause a reaction or overdose.
No, I am not wrong.
No it's not. But the actions hairyon addicts take in order to satisfy their addiction is often harmful to others.
Same with "pot" to a much lesser extent.
I knew the term "victimless crime" would bring out the pothead libertarians.
I will not engage on this subject. I do not have a strong stance for either argument on the issue of "pot", so I'll let the usual suspects fight it out.
Carry on.
I am suspicious...we apply fentanyl patches all the time and give by IV....
Is that you, Heisenberg?
Fentenyl. That’s what they are cutting heroin with now. Deadly stuff in very small doses when the purity is high and can be absorbed through the skin.
Drugs are not actions - and those same harmful acts are also done by nonusers.
Sadly
Fentanyl and that is likely what this was.
It is designed to be absorbed through the skin and so it does just that.
Excellent point.
Though I'm not blaming the drugs themselves, per se. I think the question before the board is "drug abuse", which is a combination of human behavior and drugs. Can we really differentiate the two?
I'm no philosopher.
Wait. Yes I am.
My husband would disagree. He was hanging closet doors when the doors struck back.
Ow!
What exactly am I wrong about?
I get that fentanyl can be absorbed through the skin.
But can it be absorbed by touching or inhaling the fumes of A HUMAN BEING UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF FENTANYL WITHOUT COMING INTO CONTACT WITH FENTANYL ITSELF???????
If so, then I am indeed wrong and humble myself before the court.
Am I speaking Chinese?
He is the danger.
Generally when the paramedics are called there are bodily fluids around. Gloves protect the hands but if you happen to kneel in the stuff you will absorb a small amount.
The paramedic in this case only got a trace amount or else he would not have been able to climb into the van much less drive.
If that is true, then I stand corrected.
:)
Fentalyn is so toxic that the tiniest amount of powder will give someone an OD. Cops and paramedics are being warned about this. Heroin now is often cut with fentanyl and that’s why so many OD with heroin lately.
The only drug I'm aware of that you can be effected by contact is PCP. Correct me if I'm wrong.
I take this to mean contact = touching. You do not specify if you mean skin-to-skin, or skin to drug. I will do the research to answer your questions, whichever way you meant them (but I already told you that skin to drug will do it-but I do love learning!)
From NIOSH;
Possible exposure routes to fentanyl and its analogues can vary based on the source and form of the drug. Responders are most likely to encounter illicitly manufactured fentanyl and its analogues in powder, tablet, and liquid form. Potential exposure routes of greatest concern include inhalation, mucous membrane contact, ingestion, and percutaneous exposure (e.g., needlestick). Any of these exposure routes can potentially result in a variety of symptoms that can include the rapid onset of life-threatening respiratory depression. Skin contact is also a potential exposure route, but is not likely to lead to overdose unless large volumes of highly concentrated powder are encountered over an extended period of time. Brief skin contact with fentanyl or its analogues is not expected to lead to toxic effects if any visible contamination is promptly removed.
From the almighty DEA:
Just touching fentanyl or accidentally inhaling the substance during enforcement activity or field testing the substance can result in absorption through the skin and that is one of the biggest dangers with fentanyl.
From Slate, by Jeremy Samuel Faust
Each of the medical and toxicology professionals I asked agreed that it’s implausible that one could overdose from brushing powder off a shirt. Skin cannot absorb even the strongest formulations of opioids efficiently or fast enough to exert such an effect. “Fentanyl, applied dry to the skin, will not be absorbed. There is a reason that the fentanyl patches took years [for pharmaceutical companies] to develop,” says my colleague Ed Boyer, M.D., Ph.D., a medical toxicologist at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. In fact, according to Jeanmarie Perrone, M.D., director of the division of medical toxicology in the department of emergency medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, “the American College of Medical Toxicology has drafted a position statement about the possible routes of fentanyl exposure, debunking the likelihood that transdermal fentanyl absorption is clinically significant.”
So thanks for asking the question. My take-away is that the LEOs overreacted as they are wont to do (c'mon, they do think they are just a little bit better than us, they have to be above us so they can take care of us, right?). I now believe that the risk of overdose based on an accidental SKIN contact are low. The rest of the kinds of exposure (mucous, aerosol) I believe are as dangerous as "they" say.
So bagster, to answer your question, if indeed it was about skin-to-skin exposure is no, no drug overdose is possible.
I should have read down the thread. Already hashed out (no pun intended)....
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