Tag Archives: drugs

Harm Reduction, News

Benzo Conversion Tool Updates and Discussion

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Around two weeks ago, we released two new web-based harm reduction tools, aimed particularly around helping users make better dosage choices in unclear situations. The first is a benzodiazepine dosage convertor, and the second a DXM dosage calculator. The tools have already proven popular on Facebook and Reddit, being shared relatively widely.

We’ve also been very pleased with the overwhelmingly positive response to these tools online, particularly the constructive feedback that has allowed us to quickly improve upon the quality of our released tools.

One of the major issues arising from formulaic benzodiazepine conversion is that while these drugs share a class, their effect profiles differ quite a bit. They can range between being consciously almost imperceptible at higher doses (sometimes reported with diclazepam), or intensely hypnotic at lower doses (e.g. flunitrazepam).

While benzodiazepines have different effect profiles, most strike some balance between being anxiolytic, hypnotic, and muscle relaxant. Frequently, people will be quick to measure a benzo’s ‘effectiveness’ by its psychoactive or ‘noticeable’ effects, which are most likely to be its hypnotic effects. This will, however, vary depending on your reason for taking it: a highly anxiolytic benzo is likely to feel most ‘effective’ to a person wishing to abort a panic attack, the muscle relaxant for the user experiencing muscle discomfort, etc.

This, and that drug effects of themselves are highly subjective, means there are some immanent limitations on how accurate a benzo dosage conversion can be. However, they remain useful in the case of benzos with similar effect profiles (or at least a similarity where it concerns a sought-after quality), and for tapering use – since we have used standard base equivalencies to diazepam provided by medical texts to derive comparisons.

After discussing these limitations with users, we have revamped the benzo conversion tool to maximise usability and minimise the possibility for misunderstandings.

  • We’ve added a big red notice pointing out that equivalent doses may be inaccurate for larger doses of benzos with different effect profiles.
  • Added drug search and aliases (brand names, generic names, and slang).
  • Inclusion of cards to compare information about the drugs subject to conversion side-by-side, including base dosage, duration, and effect profile information from our API. Using this comparison, you can evaluate differences in the drug’s effect profile, and see its dose ranges when considered as an individual.

Meanwhile, we’ve also added some clarification text to our DXM tool, and some extra information on potential adulterants that certain formulations may contain. We hope that these changes address the primary concerns with our new tools, and allow for maximum usefulness by prospective users with a minimal risk for misleading results.

We’re also working on additional features for this and other tools, which we look forward to telling you about soon!

Update: Just a reminder that we’re still trying to make contact with HR orgs that use our resources! You can do that here.

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Harm Reduction, News

TripSit releases V3.0 of its drug combination chart

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After many months of work, TripSit is proud to announce a new release of its popular drug combination reference chart. This new version includes many corrections, updates and clarifications. We have also moved towards a simpler visual style, to allow users to more easily identify drug combinations. We hope that this update continues to serve as a useful harm reduction tool for both drug users and for harm reduction organisations.

TripSit Combo Chart

Less common drugs, such as PCP and now aMT have been removed from the chart, though the combination information for these drugs is still available on their respective factsheet pages.

As always, this chart should only be taken as an ‘at-a-glance’ reference to the safety of drug combinations, and we hope for it to be a jumping off point for the informed drug user to aid in making sensible decisions with drugs. It’s certainly not intended as a sole reference point! With this release, we also have put a lot of work into describing the reasons and particular dangers of certain combinations, which can be found either at the bottom of https://combo.tripsit.me/ or on individual drug pages on http://drugs.tripsit.me/.

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Harm Reduction, News

New Drug Combinations Release

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2pointoAfter the initial release of our drug combinations resource over a year ago, its resultant poster has proven popular among the drug community, and has even been displayed by several harm reduction organisations at festivals.

Following feedback from users and ideas from our own team, we have worked over the past few months to improve our combinations resources and now we are pleased to announce the release of the second version of our combination chart, as well as the availability of combinations information directly on our factsheets.

Alongside the new version of the poster, which we have modified to be more easily printable and readable, we have revised a lot of the categorisations to make the actual safety of a particular drug combination clearer for the user.

We’ve done this firstly by splitting the ‘Unsafe’ category into two new categories ‘Caution’ and ‘Unsafe,’ which gives a more clear indication as to how likely bodily harm is from a regular dose of a particular combination; whether a combination should be avoided entirely or if it’s more a matter of the combination making the user uncomfortable with a smaller risk of actual harm. We have also changed a few of the safety categorisations based on new research.

Secondly, we have annotated many of our combinations with information on exactly why the combination is considered dangerous, with more elucidation as to the specific drugs to be avoided when comparing larger drug categories (such as opioids).

Alongside the combinations chart and its associated Wiki page, we have also made the information directly accessible for individual drugs from the ‘interactions’ section of drug profiles on our factsheets website, where you can for example on the DOM page see that interactions of note are annotated with specific information about the combination. The factsheets website has also undergone some additional usability improvements which come with this release.

We are continuing to develop our combinations database, along with our other resources, focusing on clarity and accuracy. Currently we are working on building a central normalised database of drug effects and references, using these to directly annotate our drug database and then create new and better tools for users to access harm reduction information (however note that many references are already available in free-text on the combinations Wiki page).

We hope the second release of our combinations resources increases their capacity to help users make safer and more informed decisions around drug use. If you notice a discrepancy, an entry you feel is incorrect or have a great idea, we are happy to receive feedback via mail to [email protected] or by using the contact form on this site.

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Drug Profile, Harm Reduction

Use of Poppers

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rush-poppers-pwd-3-packPoppers is the name given to a group of inhalant drugs, popularly used in the party and festival scene. They most commonly comprise of Amyl Nitrite, though other chemicals of the Alkyl Nitrite family are sometimes substituted.

Historically, poppers gained their initial popularity and lasting reputation, as many drugs do, from the gay club scene, where men would use the dilatory and muscle relaxant effects to make fornication easier and enhance sexual pleasure.

Presently, poppers are available worldwide, and particularly in the UK they are frequently sold by salesmen outside of festivals and large shows, capitalising on their semi-legal status – they are often sold as ‘liquid incense.’

Today, reports have emerged about people at the Parklife festival requiring medical attention after drinking poppers, apparently believing they should be used like shots of alcohol. Alkyl Nitrites are indeed potentially deadly when ingested, and this should always be avoided. If you drink poppers, seek medical attention immediately.

Poppers are most safely used by placing the bottle of the substance near the nose and inhaling for a maximum of five seconds. Within seconds, users will generally experience a rushing sensation throughout their body with a sense of warmth and euphoria which will last a maximum of 3-5 minutes, with the primary effects passing within one minute. The euphoria is often described as being synergistic with other drugs such as MDMA or 2c-b.

The effects occur as a result of the body’s blood pressure being lowered quickly, resulting in blood rushing to the heart and brain, causing light-headedness and an increase in heart rate. With increased doses (generally, amount of time inhaled) users may potentially become unconscious or enter a coma (though it is slightly difficult to reach this point with small bottles which are generally sold to users). Poppers should also be avoided by those with heart problems.

Poppers aren’t believed to be particularly addictive, though the short length of effect may cause users to redose several times, which can cause headaches. Frequent redosing should be avoided, taking breaks to avoid stressing the cardiovascular system, and ensuring that effects aren’t compounded between doses.

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