5 Drugs that Athletes (and others) Need to Know About

If a person visits an in person casino, people think about excessive drinking and smoking.  When people think about online casinos like PlayCroco Casino, there may be other vices that people think about.

The same can be said about sports and drugs.  When people think about sports and drugs, the first drug that comes to their mind is steroids.   The problem with steroids is that when a person first does it, they think that it is no big deal.  I can handle it.  But in the end, way before they even realize that they have a problem, they have a problem.

Some of these drugs that I am going to talk about it, a sports person would never touch.  But when you are dealing with illegal drugs (or even the gray area), you have no idea what you are actually getting.

Times are changing, for better or for worse.  What might have been true in the 1930s or even the 1960s maybe not be true in the 2020s.  It is you are going to start entering the gray area, at least understand what it is that you are getting yourself into.  Knowledge is power.  What you want to do with that power is up to you.

Tranq or more specifically, the animal tranquilizer xylazine

Xylazine is a drug used for sedation, anesthesia, muscle relaxation, and analgesia in animals such as horses, cattle, and other non-human mammals.  Veterinarians also use xylazine as an emetic, especially in cats.  Yes, it is a drug that is used to cause a cat to vomit, and yet, people are willingly ingesting this into their bodies.  Xylazine has become a drug of abuse in the United States, where it is known by the street name “tranq”, particularly in Puerto Rico.  But what might have started in Puerto Rico has not stayed in Puerto Rico and can now be found easily in the streets of Philadelphia (and other major US cities).  It is being used as a cutting agent for heroin and fentanyl.

And if you thought heroin and fentanyl were bad, adding tranq to it makes those drugs a million times worse.

Tranq causes skin sores on the legs.  We are talking about a skin sore on your shin that is around the size of a two inch oval shape.  Now envision playing soccer when your leg has that open sore.  Just thinking about that makes me want to vomit even without taking Tranq.  It also causes infections at the injection site, but that can be said about any illegal drug being injected into your body.  Anybody who is stupid enough to inject Tranq into their body does not care about having a sterile environment.

If you do not believe me, then watch this YouTube video published by PIX11 News “Tranq: the zombie effect.”  Tranq also goes by the nickname “zombie cut” and “sleep cut”.

From 2010 to 2019 the proportion of xylazine in heroin and/or fentanyl deaths in Philadelphia rose from 3 to 28%.  The combination of heroin and xylazine produces a potentially more deadly high than the administration of heroin alone.  From November 2021 until August 2022 80% of drug paraphernalia which tested positive for fentanyl at needle exchange programs in Maryland also contained xylazine.  In April 2023, the Biden administration declared xylazine-laced fentanyl an official emerging drug threat to the nation, the first time that label has been given.

According to Gupta Xylazine is the deadliest drug threat the United States has ever faced. DEA seized xylazine and fentanyl mixtures in 48 of 50 States and 23% of seized fentanyl powder and 7% of fentanyl pills contained xylazine.

So unless you like playing sports with big open sores all over your body, it is best to stay away from Tranq, fentanyl, heroin, opioids, etc.  Even marijuana is being mixed with Tranq.

Fentanyl

Fentanyl is a high potent synthetic opioid.  Some people take this drug by itself, but a lot of times it is mixed with other drugs in order to make those drugs more addictive.

Synthetic opioid deaths, for example, fentanyl, increased from 2,600 overdose deaths per year in 2011 to 76,238 per year in 2022.

Fentanyl’s most common side effects, which affect more than 10% of people, include nausea, vomiting, constipation, dry mouth, somnolence, confusion, and asthenia (weakness). Less frequently, in 3–10% of people, fentanyl can cause abdominal pain, headache, fatigue, anorexia and weight loss, dizziness, nervousness, anxiety, depression, flu-like symptoms, dyspepsia (indigestion), shortness of breath, hypoventilation, apnoea, and urinary retention. Fentanyl use has also been associated with aphasia (inability to comprehend or formulate language).  In other words, you become a babbling idiot.

Do you honestly think that anybody who is taking fentanyl, with their lack of ability to comprehend or formulate language, is going to be able to play sports even to a fraction of their potential ability?  It does not matter if we are talking about pro sports, amateur sports, college sports, high school sports, and little league.  It does not matter if you are playing sports to “earn money” or “just for fun”.  You take fentanyl, and your performance in sports is “going to suck” (and you will probably do something so stupid that it will make a viral YouTube video in a way that you do not want it to be viral).

But fentanyl is just taken by itself.  Many times, as with Tranq, it is mixed into other drugs in order to make those more potent and addictive.

Do you think that “taking a bit of steroids” is going to be okay?  All the “big” athletes do it?  How do you know those steroids are not going to be laced with fentanyl?  Do you trust your drug dealer?  If so, why?  Why would you trust a drug dealer who wants you to become addicted to his product, so you no longer have any free will to choose to continue or not continue to take those drugs?  A drug dealer is not your friend, even if your “drug dealer” is your coach.  That person only cares about themselves and how they can use you to make themselves richer.  That is also true about your agent.

Opioids

Opioids are substances that act on opioid receptors to produce morphine-like effects.  Medically they are primarily used for pain relief, including anesthesia.  Other medical uses include suppression of diarrhea, replacement therapy for opioid use disorder, reversing opioid overdose, and suppressing cough.

Side effects of opioids may include itchiness, sedation, nausea, respiratory depression, constipation, and euphoria. Long-term use can cause tolerance, meaning that increased doses are required to achieve the same effect and physical dependence, meaning that abruptly discontinuing the drug leads to unpleasant withdrawal symptoms.

The euphoria attracts recreational use, and frequent, escalating recreational use of opioids typically results in addiction. An overdose or concurrent use with other depressant drugs like benzodiazepines commonly results in death from respiratory depression.

And on top of all of that, opioids, when sold in the illegal drug market, are now commonly laced with fentanyl and tranq.  So now, you are not only dealing with a drug addiction to opioids, but you are also potentially dealing with a drug addiction to fentanyl and/or tranq.

Summary

Drug use today is not like drug use in the 1960s due to these drugs being cut with fentanyl and tranq.  This includes steroids and marijuana.

Even vaping and smoking is not like it used to be, because companies spend large amounts of money trying to figure out how to make their products as addictive as possible.

Even something as “benign” as medical abortion pills (if you want to call it that) that are bought on the black market … how do you really if what you are buying is even close to what is prescribed by a doctor in a professional environment?

If you play sports (professional or recreational), you care about your body and your health.  So don’t mess it up by putting into your body something that you have no idea what it really is?