'Millions of lethal doses' of heroin were actually 99.999% water in federal 'drug' bust
https://www.kgw.com/article/news/crime/massive-liquid-heroin-federal-drug-bust-actually-water-washington-portland/283-ab901252-6e84-424d-a3a3-09c66d17c327
520 points · 135 comments · view on lemmy.world
135 Comments
Dicska@lemmy.world · 145 pts · 359d
Homeopathic heroin?
TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world · 48 pts · 359d
Vibe heroin
jordanlund@lemmy.world · 42 pts · 359d
Man, if homeopathy worked, those guys could have been billionaires!
pelespirit@sh.itjust.works · -26 pts · 359d
It does work for some things, they just call it different stuff.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2477790-daily-doses-of-peanuts-could-desensitise-adults-with-the-allergy/
nulluser@lemmy.world · 50 pts · 359d
That's cool, but it's not homeopathy. That's micro dosing.
For it to be homeopathy, the peanut proteins would need to be so diluted in water, that hundreds of Olympic swimming pools full of the solution would be unlikely to contain a single molecule of peanut protein. All that's left is the water infused with 👋👋PeAnUt EnErGy👋👋.
pelespirit@sh.itjust.works · -26 pts · 359d
Micro-dosing, so extreme homeopathy.
Edit, it's actually less than microdosing:
nulluser@lemmy.world · 41 pts · 358d
No, the other way around.
In micrososing and with this peanut thing, there are actually molecules of the thing you're taking in the solution, just very small amounts.
In homeopathy, there isn't any. At all. Zilch. None. Squat. Bupkiss. Nada. Elvis has left the building. Who? Dave? .... Dave's not here. This parrot is no more, it has ceased to be, it is bereft of life, it rests in peace. This is an ex-parrot.
pelespirit@sh.itjust.works · -23 pts · 358d
I don't know enough to argue about it, but I do know that there are some poisons that will kill you if you smell it.
nulluser@lemmy.world · 20 pts · 358d
https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/another-damning-homeopathy-report/
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 9 pts · 358d
Just literally read like a two sentence definition of "homeopathy" on Wikipedia or something, because you're literally confusing it with everything.
prettybunnys@sh.itjust.works · 8 pts · 357d
If you can smell it then it isn’t homeopathy. L
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 17 pts · 358d
Definitely not homeopathy.
Unless it's the peanut's memory that you're absorbing, and that the less peanut that's in the final result that you take is, the more powerful the results become.
Because that's the stupidity of homeopathy.
Gullible@sh.itjust.works · 12 pts · 359d
GooningMicrodosing on nut
captainlezbian@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 358d
Wake me when they can eat a jar of peanut butter in one sitting like a teenager about to grow an inch overnight
RipLemmDotEE@lemmy.today · 6 pts · 358d
It's used for microdosing.
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today · 5 pts · 358d
dihydrogen oxide.
fluxion@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 358d
They seized it for RFK Jr.
cheese_greater@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 358d
Is that legal?
whosepoopisonmybutt@sh.itjust.works · 69 pts · 358d
Doing a little napkin math here, that's about a half an ounce of heroin mixed into 385 gallons of water.
That seems more like the 55 gallon drums had previously been filled with heroin, but were drained and refilled with water, and just a little residue was leftover.
hector@lemmy.today · 73 pts · 358d
Or a false positive to begin with in the cops don't want to admit they made a mistake. False positives are way higher sometimes with Trace Amounts. Plus the drug testing Labs try to give the results the cops want.
Confused_Emus@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 357d
I doubt a false positive here. Clearly something weird about the cargo to begin with - what the hell else are a couple of dudes going across states in a uhaul doing with 55 gallon drums of water? The water wars aren’t set to start for another few decades, I think. Not really a commodity that needs to be shipped, and if it were I doubt it would be shipped by uhaul.
I mean seriously, just look at the situation and analyze it with some common sense. ACAB, but not every single interaction with them is a conspiracy.
hector@lemmy.today · 3 pts · 357d
I think it definitely warrants independent testing of the barrels. It seems pretty odd that the police would be tipped off about barrels with Trace Amounts of heroin in them. Given the authorities' penchent for not admitting when they made a mistake.
It is quite odd otherwise.
null@lemmy.nullspace.lol · 0 pts · 358d
Source? That's a strong claim...
hector@lemmy.today · 8 pts · 358d
When State drug labs are run by the state police running tests for police you will get that. For instance any amount of THC in the blood can get an impaired driving charge. Unless it is a legalized state in which case it minuscule tiny amount that could have resulted from smoking 14 week days ago is still enough. With the smallest amounts, one nanogram per milliliter, false positives are as high as 40%, but when they go into court they don't say that. They make it sound like this is what it is science. We could speak of a dozen different types of junk science they have been involved in as well. Like hair analysis.
null@lemmy.nullspace.lol · -4 pts · 358d
Sure, that's just the law.
I don't think the lab techs attend the court cases to provide details about how testing works...
If you know that, you don't think a decent defense lawyer knows that?
What I asked for was a source for your bold claim that:
Interesting that you'd downvote me just for asking for a source for your strong claim though...
Confused_Emus@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 357d
You want a solid source over their feelsies? Gods you’re so demanding.
(/s for the illiterate)
null@lemmy.nullspace.lol · -7 pts · 357d
So no source then, just making things up. Got it!
hector@lemmy.today · 6 pts · 357d
If you need a source to explain the inherent conflicts of interest and having the Police lab run by the state police for the police, it would not make a difference anyway. Likewise since you are unaware, and keep scorn on the idea, it shows that you either do not follow the news very closely, or are dishonest about it. Either way think what you want.
Confused_Emus@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 0 pts · 357d
I agree with the principal idea, but if this is as much of a prevailing issue as you’re making it out to be, it shouldn’t be too hard to produce even a single solid source beyond your own convictions of, “Well that’s just how the world works!”
hector@lemmy.today · 2 pts · 357d
It's common knowledge, does somebody asked politely I might have gone to the trouble, or you could just search for Crime Lab people get caught cheating and find pages of results. Or you can search for any number of junk Sciences like hair test analysis. Or not I don't care what you think. Someone coming from a place of it is preposterous the police would do anything improper is not worth talking to, and as such good day.
null@lemmy.nullspace.lol · -6 pts · 357d
Not sure why you felt the need to come back and double-down on having nothing of substance to back up your bold claim whatsoever, but thanks.
hector@lemmy.today · 4 pts · 357d
Because you are purposely being obtuse here because you have an ax to grind defending the police apparently.
That State Police labs are biased in favor of the police is common knowledge and doesn't need a source.
I don't know why I would waste time with someone that heaps scorn on the idea that the cops would be anything less than forthright.
prettybunnys@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 357d
There was a pretty famous case of this in the Boston area recently(last decade or so) and there is a Netflix series about it.
null@lemmy.nullspace.lol · 2 pts · 357d
I'm gonna guess you don't know the details, do you?
prettybunnys@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 357d
Off the top of my head I’d be summarizing, let me see if I can find a link.
The Netflix documentary is called “how to fix a drug scandal”
Here’s an article about the documentary and the scandal: https://www.bostonherald.com/2020/03/30/netflix-spotlights-mass-lab-debacle-in-how-to-fix-a-drug-scandal/
horn_e4_beaver@discuss.tchncs.de · 16 pts · 358d
How many lethal doses of water is that?
Rocketpoweredgorilla@lemmy.ca · 22 pts · 358d
Doesn't say the size of the human but guestimating 3 gallons should be enough for most people, would make that 130 lethal doses or so from 385 gallons of water.
Ava@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 7 pts · 358d
Let's call that 1500 liters of water. Assuming that drinking 10 liters of water in a short timeframe will almost certainly kill you somehow or another, 150 doses?
expatriado@lemmy.world · 63 pts · 359d
dihydrogen monoxide is pretty lethal
the_q@lemmy.zip · 42 pts · 359d
Dagnet@lemmy.world · 21 pts · 358d
It's also extremely addictive, most people die of withdrawal in just 3 days without a dose
frongt@lemmy.zip · 9 pts · 359d
Well, we don't know that. There are plenty of people who have ingested it but not died.
jordanlund@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 358d
Yet!
nulluser@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 359d
No, just those that ingest way to much or inhale to much of it into their lungs.
Sludgehammer@lemmy.world · 50 pts · 359d
Okay, I really want to know why these guys were transporting barrels of water with 0.001% heroin in them. Was it a con? A test run? Barrel re-use? A case of cops not having heroin on hand to frame them?
I'm just baffled as to why you'd be hauling around eight barrels of water and how the trace amounts of heroin got in them.
expatriado@lemmy.world · 38 pts · 359d
0.001% should had been bellow the threshold of any reasonable test, otherwise all of us are carrying drugs
Chaotic_Altruist@lemmy.zip · 7 pts · 358d
I'm carrying drugs for sure!
INHALE_VEGETABLES@aussie.zone · 1 pts · 357d
Sup
Archangel1313@lemmy.ca · 21 pts · 359d
It was probably just infused with poppy seed oil, for cooking.
hitmyspot@aussie.zone · 6 pts · 358d
Then why the water. Cooking oils and water don’t mix.
Fondots@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 358d
EDIT: I mathed wrong, see comments below.
Just my 2¢ as a complete nobody who likes to think about stuff and Google some numbers, take it for what it's worth.
Of course the numbers here are all very fuzzy, but if we take the inaccurate initial estimate of "millions" of lethal doses at face value (which you probably shouldn't, these estimates always seem to be massively inflated,) .001% of 2 million (the smallest number you can really call "millions") is still 2000 lethal doses. Probably several times that in actual doses since most addicts aren't looking to outright kill themselves.
I don't know the physics/chemistry of how heroin dissolves into water, let alone how pure the heroin involved was or any of the other factors that would play into this, so these numbers are probably gonna be way off, but 8 55gal drums of water is 440 gallons. .001% of that is .44 gallons of heroin. And I believe that would theoretically be a solid block of heroin with that volume, not a loose power where some of that volume is air.
That's an upper bound, because that's not how volume works when you dissolve stuff, s let's go ahead and assume the actual amount of heroin is ¼ of that (based on nothing but a wild guess, easy math and an assumption that I'm wildly overestimating) so .11 gallons, (1.76 cups, a 2.94 inch cube, 416.395 ml)
With the amount of googling I was willing to do, I couldn't find the density of heroin, but anhydrous morphine is apparently 1.32 g/cm³, so let's roll with that. 1.32×416.395 = 549.6414g (a little over a pound for my fellow Americans)
Let's go ahead and call that 500g or ½kg to make math easy and further account for me probably overestimating things earlier.
A little googling tells me the value of heroin is between $10,000-$100,000/kg, so for half of that we're looking at $5,000-$50,000 of heroin in those drums (assuming that all of my many assumptions weren't too far off-base)
So for that kind of money, assuming they have the means to recover the heroin at the other end (industrial freeze dryer maybe? Not sure what the best method would be,) I could definitely see it being worthwhile to have a couple mooks rent a u haul to smuggle heroin from point a to point b this way.
Also gives you a little insurance against the driver stealing any of it en route. It's not easy to just walk off with a full barrel, and if they siphoned some off, they probably wouldn't have the means to recover it, and even if they did it wouldn't be much.
One of the barrels tested negative, and I kind of suspect they didn't just put in a barrel of plain water for shits and giggles, so I have a hunch that the plan was to dilute the heroin down to below the detection threshold for whatever field test kit cops usually have, so if they got stopped they'd just say they have barrels of water, which would be weird but probably not illegal, but either they just had bad luck and the cops had a better batch of test strips than usual, or someone fucked up dividing the heroin between the barrels.
Again, take that all for what it's worth.
the_mighty_kracken@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 358d
Someone else here said the total amount of heroin in those barrels was less than half an ounce. That sounds like they were reusing dirty barrels for some other purpose, not transporting heroin. I have no idea why someone would move barrels of water around in a truck, but I don't think it is illegal.
Fondots@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 358d
EDIT: I mathed wrong, see comments below.
I also saw that comment, all they cited was "napkin math" for that number, which is really all I've done here, so both of our answers should be taken with a big grain of salt.
They might know a lot more than I do and started with better numbers and used a better methodology, or they might be talking totally out of their ass and just picked a number that sounded about right to them, I can't say. If they want to look over my math, they're more than welcome to, that's why I wrote it out, so that people can fact-check me, I very well might be wrong. And if they they explain their napkin math, I'll look that over as well.
And to just do my math another way to back up the idea of it being more than a half ounce, let's go by weight. A gallon weighs about 8lbs, x 55 × 8 = 3520lbs of water, or 1596.645kg. 1596.645 × .001 = 1.596645kg of heroin by weight. And let's go ahead and assume I'm being overly optimistic about those weights, the purity of heroin, and all of the other science involved, and go ahead and use that cut that by 75% again like I did the first time, which gets us to about .4kg of heroin, not too far off from the .5kg I estimated the first time, and in either case significantly more than a half ounce.
EDIT: also, I just watched the video included in the article. A lot of the screenshots and such there seem to be talking about fentanyl while the article says heroin, so there seems to be some crossed wires here. Fentanyl is of course much more potent, so if the substance in the barrels was in fact fentanyl that would also be worth considering, ½oz of fentanyl would still plenty for a few dozen lethal doses, still a far cry from "millions" but it's something else that may be worth taking into consideration.
The_Decryptor@aussie.zone · 8 pts · 358d
That's 0.1%, not 0.001%
0.001% of 440 gallons is 0.5632 fl oz (or just over 16ml out of 1,666 liters)
Fondots@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 358d
See, that's why I post my math so someone can double check me, I'm just some assholes one the internet doing math while I'm standing around staring at my washer waiting for it to finish
whosepoopisonmybuttocks@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 358d
I'd really just calculated it the way decryptor did but the article also said only 7 of the barrels actually tested positive.
I figured most things have a density not all that far from water. This isn't lead or tungsten or helium we're talking about. Also the their .001% value is probably also just ballpark.
Fondots@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 358d
You know, I've gotten a lot of mileage out of that same rule of thumb, and it hasn't steered me wrong yet. It feels like it shouldn't work, when it comes up people are always skeptical of it, but the results are hard to argue with.
ThePantser@sh.itjust.works · 10 pts · 359d
Maybe they already removed the heroin and a little bit leaked into the water. Could have been a heroin "core" inside the barrels to fool dogs.
jordanlund@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 359d
May have been a bad smuggling operation? Mix it with water, ship the water, then boil off the water leaving the heroin? Too bad doing that ruins the heroin.
Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works · 19 pts · 359d
That's like 6,000 pounds of water for a few ounces of heroin. There equipment is either off by a factor of ten or more and it's contamination or probably more likely the cop sprinkled some in.
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today · 4 pts · 358d
sounds like it was sprinkled.
Maeve@kbin.earth · 1 pts · 358d
Open and shut case.
jordanlund@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 358d
Hence the "bad smuggling". :)
Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 358d
I refuse to believe that dilution ratio is intentional. Heroin gets much cheaper once you are buying ounces. It's just not worth it, it probably would have cost more in equipment than the heroin value itself and that's before you factor in peoples time.
sqgl@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 357d
Is it too far fetched that the cops got rich by replacing the heroin with water? Initial suspects would be happy to go along with the lie just to avoid life in jail.
cenzorrll@piefed.ca · 3 pts · 357d
Well, if you need to catch a snitch, you set up a few false operations. Tell each person something different and see which one is busted.
handsoffmydata@lemmy.zip · 38 pts · 358d
The only H in that heroin was for homeopathy
60d@lemmy.ca · 29 pts · 358d
These were always full of water, I promise.
Jokes aside, isn't all tapwater just diluted heroin when you think about it?
user224@lemmy.sdf.org · 14 pts · 358d
You drink diluted piss. Think about it.
60d@lemmy.ca · 8 pts · 358d
And all piss has heroin in it.
monkeyslikebananas2@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 358d
So how much more do i need to inject before i feel something?
60d@lemmy.ca · 5 pts · 358d
Just keep going until it works. Someone on here said 6 liters within 3 hours, I think.
monkeyslikebananas2@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 358d
Thanks for the quick response. I’m just going to connect the IV bag to the catheter for max efficiency.
SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de · 3 pts · 358d
The body does not produce enough. You need to hook up at least 4 of your friends directly into your veins
monkeyslikebananas2@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 358d
Guys this is getting complicated and I don’t feel anything. I’m just going to go to the back of the Wendy’s…
whoisearth@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 358d
The basis of homeopathy.
Regrettable_incident@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 358d
You're welcome.
Showroom7561@lemmy.ca · 6 pts · 357d
If you were into homeopathy, you'd claim that diluted heroin is more potent than the stuff you buy on the street! 💁♂️
someguy3@lemmy.world · 24 pts · 358d
So how much of that would you have to drink to get high? Can you get high from drinking it?
Also
What the fuck were they doing driving around barrels of water?
Blum0108@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 358d
That's the new big gulp size at 7 eleven
Kolanaki@pawb.social · 4 pts · 358d
AM/PM must be doing that "99 cent refill on any container" promo again.
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 3 pts · 358d
If they're a cop, just tell them it's fentanyl, and they'll pass out as soon as the water touches their skin
Nomad@infosec.pub · 2 pts · 358d
Occupy cops so the real shipment just slips through I guess.
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today · 2 pts · 358d
you will probably get water intoxication before you can even get heroin high.
Kolanaki@pawb.social · 17 pts · 358d
Water! Ordinary water!
Laced with nothing more than a few drops of heroin.
FauxLiving@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 357d
Yeah, but it was from a tap so they're committing a crime against Nestle
Sam_Bass@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 357d
When your dealer is into homeopathy
MajorasTerribleFate@lemmy.zip · 4 pts · 357d
That's some weak-ass homeopathic heroin, only 5X / 2C (I have no idea if 2.5C would sound nonsensical to a homeopath). Gotta dilute that a lot more times, that's how you make it more potent. Effing 19th century pseudoscience.
SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 358d
They got the decoy shipment
hector@lemmy.today · 14 pts · 358d
Maybe the cops have a false positive on the tests. Maybe they don't want to admit it's a false positive so they don't have to admit they were wrong to arrest them in the first place.
OhStopYellingAtMe@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 358d
To be fair, they weren’t 99.999% water until after they were blasted into the ocean by a hellfire missile.
INHALE_VEGETABLES@aussie.zone · 4 pts · 358d
Don't care still having a hit
resipsaloquitur@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 358d
Homeoperoin.
npcknapsack@lemmy.ca · 9 pts · 357d
My goodness. Well, folks, we finally did it. We convinced the people in power that dihydrogen monoxide really is deadly.
Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de · 8 pts · 357d
A little besides the point, but still: Who would even count lethal doses in the first place? Is that just a scare tactic? Surely they would know enough about the drugs they are enforcing against to know the average or typical dose?
frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 9 pts · 357d
The ATF once seized a shipment of airsoft guns by claiming "they could be modified to shoot real bullets".
The ATF knows how guns work. They know that's an absurd thing to say. They don't make these claims to actually protect anyone.
halloween_spookster@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 355d
The ATF dude who showed off the haul didn't know how to insert a magazine into those "rifles"
jordanlund@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 357d
I think it's about figuring out how many charges to throw at the guys, not that it matters because it's water. LOL.
technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 357d
lol these people are fash... don't know, don't care. Just here to put people in cages.
resipsaloquitur@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 358d
Told you dihydrogen monoxide was deadly.
ReasonablePea@sh.itjust.works · 8 pts · 358d
This is gonna be a stupid question but is heroin a liquid? I always assumed it was some sort of crystal
jordanlund@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 358d
Sooo... it's complicated.
To produce heroin you need a specific species of poppy, called oddly enough an "opium poppy".
You gently slice the heads of the poppy to extract a milky liquid. That's the base for a whole HOST of drugs depending on how you process it, but yes, it starts life as a liquid.
Opium sap -> Morphine -> Heroin.
Man, now I'm envisioning a whole series of black market "How It's Made" videos.
https://youtu.be/6o4zOMNlSco
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 3 pts · 358d
Probably more of a suspension than just a liquid, but chemistry was never my strong suit
JoeBigelow@lemmy.ca · 8 pts · 358d
It's typically sold as a powder, "cooked up" into a liquid by dissolving in water, then injected.
Rekorse@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 358d
It has different bases it can be in, depending how its processed or how many steps its processed. Street heroin in america could be water soluble or not depending on location. Sometimes you need to add something to make it react to make it water soluble, other times its already in water soluble form. You need it to be water soluble to snort or inject it.
INHALE_VEGETABLES@aussie.zone · 1 pts · 357d
This guy injects
Rekorse@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 357d
Couldn't bring myself to do it but did try snooting! Would not recommend!
INHALE_VEGETABLES@aussie.zone · 1 pts · 356d
Yeah I cant say I've ever been tempted to stick shit in my arm either
Fedizen@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 357d
It kinda sounds like those drums were previously used for heroin or the cops had just kinda framed them entirely by tossing something in water drums.
Tangerine@scribe.disroot.org · 5 pts · 359d
Placebo
Edgarallenpwn@midwest.social · 3 pts · 357d
I grew up in a house with hippie grandparents. When I got older we would always have fun laughing at drug busts stating how much money the agency said was worth. This is just a shame.
diptchip@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 358d
rarsamx@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 357d
Let's start a conspiracy theory. Although these days everything can be true:
It was heroine but someone in the police department syphoned the heroine, replaced with water and agreed with the defendant that they'll get a slap on the wrist if they followed along.
So, now, someone has some heroine on sale!
phutatorius@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 357d
Joan of Arc?
frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 2 pts · 357d
Celestine. Games Workshop also makes drugs, but they come on plastic runners.