Opiate Overdose

I was watching Morning Joe on MSNBC this morning and saw the interview with Eric Bolling regarding his son’s opiate overdose and death. I’m not fond of Bolling as a political pundit, but I once heard him talking about his son a few years ago – it was obvious that he truly loved his son and that they were not only father and son, but also very good friends. Eric’s son, Eric Chase Bolling, is a famous case of opiate overdose, and it’s good that Bolling’s speaking out about his son’s death — the more people who know the raw facts about opiate addiction the better.

Opiate use is complicated. We don’t want to demonize all opiates. There’s a medical use for opiates and they help millions of people daily. Chase Bolling was buying from a dealer and bought something way more powerful than he expected, from what I’ve read. The mixture Chase took included Fentanyl, and that’s dangerous because it’s so powerful. Fentanyl has a specific medical use and should never be used recreationally. Xanax was in the mixture and it’s also very dangerous to mix Xanax with opiates — this greatly enhances the probability of opiate overdose. Here’s an excerpt from an article about a fake Xanax that’s now sold as a party drug — read the whole article:

Buyer Beware

As with any drug off the street, buyers may not be getting what they bargained for – a counterfeit pill made to look like Xanax has been popping up nationwide.

And while it claims to be the real deal, these pills are really cut with fentanyl, a highly addictive synthetic painkiller commonly prescribed to cancer patients to treat extreme discomfort.

Fentanyl is the strongest prescription painkiller on the market: 100 times stronger than morphine and 50 times stronger than heroin. And according to the Food and Drug Administration, even the smallest dose is enough to cause deadly side effects – especially in those taking it for the first time.

According to experts, a dose of fentanyl equal to the size of three grains of sand can kill. It’s also cheap and easy to obtain, which is music to dealers’ and street manufacturers’ ears – fentanyl is now the ideal ingredient to mix with other drugs.

Opiate overdose is a huge problem. It affects the rich, the middle class and the poor. If a person has a problem with opiates, help is available.