Speedball (drug)
A mixture of the drugs cocaine and heroin is referred to as speedball (English for speed ball ) or powerballing (English for energy concentration ) .
effect
The special effect of the mixture is based on the fact that cocaine is a stimulant , but heroin has a sedating effect. The sometimes strong drowsy effect of heroin is initially offset by the stimulating effect of cocaine. However, the effect of cocaine wears off faster than that of heroin, so that sudden clouding of consciousness and hypoventilation can occur. Even an overdose of heroin can initially be slowed down by cocaine, so that its effect is then delayed. The lethal effect is based purely on the heroin overdose and not on the mixture itself.
The mixture is usually injected intravenously or consumed nasally with a sniffing tube .
Known fatalities
- In 1979 the singer and songwriter Judee Sill died after an overdose of speedball.
- In 1982, John Belushi died of a speedball that he ingested at an excessive drug party.
- In 1988 Chet Baker , a well-known jazz trumpeter, was killed in a lintel after being ingested.
- At the end of 1988 the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat succumbed to an overdose.
- In 1993, actor River Phoenix collapsed and died after consuming a speedball accidentally ingesting eight times a lethal dose of heroin.
- In 1996, Dave Gahan ( Depeche Mode ) was clinically dead for two minutes after injecting himself with a speedball.
- In 1997 Chris Farley died while using speedball.
- In 2002 Layne Staley ( Alice in Chains ) succumbed to a speedball overdose.
- In 2014, Philip Seymour Hoffman succumbed to a speedball overdose.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Speedball in the drug lexicon of the Federal Center for Health Education . Retrieved March 30, 2016.
- ↑ Burkhard Madea: Forensic medicine: assessment, reconstruction, assessment . Springer-Verlag, November 24, 2014, ISBN 978-3-662-43500-7 , p. 734–.
- ↑ Why is a speedball sometimes homicidal? ( Memento of the original from July 27, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. health2009.com. Retrieved March 30, 2016.
- ↑ Your-Gesundheit.tv: Dave Gahan from Depeche Mode reports on his drug experiences
- ↑ Philip Seymour Hoffman died from "speedball" that killed River Phoenix and John Belushi . In: mirror . March 1, 2014 ( co.uk ).
