I had a relative die this way and my family said he literally still had needle in his arm, I have heard this in other overdose stories as well. What happens that causes them to die so instantly?
In: Biology
The way opiates like heroin and fentanyl kill people is through their ability to make you stop breathing. This is called “respiratory suppression.” These drugs bind receptors in your brain that make you want to breathe less. You breathing less first causes you to go unconscious then you ultimately die.
Now there are a few ways that this can happen.
1. You take too much.
2. You use the same amount you typically do but in a place that you don’t typically do it.
3. The potency is your drug is too much (I.e. you take a synthetic like others have mentioned)
Expanding on number 2. If you shoot up in your bathroom at home every day your brain associates that location with shooting up, so it does essentially prime your body for breaking down the drug faster. Say now you go home for the holidays. You go into your parent’s bathroom and shoot up the same amount that you do at home but because you aren’t in that same environnement, your body isn’t ready for all of that heroin/fentanyl and you’ve now overdosed on your usual dose.
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