化學藥物的危險性

[Guest]

Dying from the combined effect of drugs in this way is
often known as “polypharmacy”. In Jackson’s case it
seems unlikely that propofol (Diprivan) was the only
drug he had swimming around in his system, though it
may well have been the last drug he took.

It’s crucial to understand the risks of polypharmacy
since it’s such an extremely common cause of
accidental drug deaths. What happens is simply that the
combined effect of taking several Central Nervous
System (CNS) depressants at the same time is more
potent and depresses the CNS more than any of the
drugs taken singly would.

It’s common for drug users to die in this way because
they don’t understand the risks. Or they’re intoxicated
and don’t care. Not only that, but as any drugs worker
can tell you, many supposed straight “heroin
overdoses” are complicated by the fact that the street
heroin had been adulterated with other drugs, typically
benzodiazepines.

Anna Nicole Smith, you may recall, died as a result of
ingesting a combination of drugs, principally chloral
hydrate – the ingredient in the old “Mickey Finn”.
(Added to which she had contracted a serious infection
from injecting vitamins and weight-loss drugs into her
buttocks.) Elvis Presley also died from polypharmacy,
although in his case the toxicology revealed he had
ingested several substances in doses that could have
killed him if used individually.

This is how it works: a benzodiazepine tranquilliser, for
example, like diazepam (Valium), is hard to overdose
on fatally when taken on its own, but combine it with
another CNS depressant such as, typically, alcohol, or
opiate painkillers, and you could be in real trouble. The
lesson is: the sedatives used for sleep and anxiety
these days may be much safer than the old barbiturates
they superceded, but they can still be lethal if combined
with alcohol or other sedatives.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6-lV-qxRhk

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/andrewmcfbrown/100004839/anna-nicole-smith-coroner-predicts-polypharmacy-in-jackson-case/