(edited for clarity) ------------------------------ From: chalupka@bnr.ca (Andrew Chalupka) Newsgroups: alt.drugs Subject: Drugs in Pulp Fiction? OK, my question is this: In the scene where Mia (Uma Thurman) snorts heroin (thinking it was cocaine) she almost instantly falls into an unconcious state with blood coming out of her nose, etc. Vincent (John Travolta) insists that she is ODing when he brings her to his dealer's house. Would this really happen if you snorted heroin? And if so, why? ------------------------------ From: dyer@spdcc.com (Steve Dyer) The treatment of drugs in this movie was hardly realistic (you forgot to mention how she was treated--by an injection of epinephrine directly into her heart--this is dramatic license at its worst.) I suppose you could OD by snorting heroin, especially if, like Mia, you're opiate naive and petite. I doubt it would work quite so quickly as it did in the movie, but I'll defer to greater experts on that, since I have no direct experience with street drugs of any sort. The blood coming out of her nose was a sensationalistic gothic effect. ------------------------------ From: lewis@lumina.mitre.org (Spud Demon) ... In _Pulp Fiction_, John Travolta's character (Vincent?) buys a bag of really really powerful junk for $500 per gram. There are heroin-like drugs such as fentanyl and n-methyl-fentanyl which are orders of magnitude more powerful than heroin. But they are commonly cut and sold as smack, not as what they really are. The dealer warned Vincent that the stuff was really strong, but Mia didn't know this when she found it. If it was n-methyl-fentanyl, one line (a good solid line of coke can be 0.1 gram) could be a huge overdose. ... ------------------------------ From: peter@petermc.demon.co.uk (Peter McDermott) >I suppose you could OD by snorting heroin, especially if, like Mia, >you're opiate naive and petite. I doubt it would work quite so quickly >as it did in the movie, but I'll defer to greater experts on that, since >I have no direct experience with street drugs of any sort. Well, I do and while people _do_ OD snorting heroin, it's very rare and usually happens if it has been combined with alcohol. The usual scenario in such circumstances is that a person falls asleep and chokes on their own vomit. It is possible to die from either a toxic reaction, or respiratory failure, but as I say, it doesn't happen that often and it would be a while before you lost consciousness. ... >> how much heroin is in an average dose? > >It varies a lot depending on the tolerance of the user. I *think* (check >this out before you decide to use it) that a typical starting dose is 0.1 >grams. Maybe if the heroin is cut to nothing. However, with pharmaceutical heroin used for the relief of severe pain in cases of cancer, a starting dose is likely to be 5mg, a starting dose for recreational use is more like 10mg or 0.01 grams. ------------------------------ Reply-To: Richard@rphillip.demon.co.uk ... The scene in pulp fiction was very unrealistic, though kind of usefull as an artistic device! Snorting heroin *can* lead to overdose, though this is rare and would never be as quick as in the movie. Injecting heroin can lead to an almost instant o/d (cue corpse with needle in arm routine). As previously said, the bloody nose was kind of unlikely. The adrenalin injection bit struck me as unlikely, though we don't use adrenalin for opiate o/d in the UK, so I'm not 100% sure. I know that the states is pretty repressive in it's response to drugs, but paramedics are the only people to deal with a real o/d ------------------------------ From: dyer@spdcc.com (Steve Dyer) ... We'd use naloxone in the US--adrenalin wouldn't have any effect against an opiate overdose. I guess that what really pissed me off about the movie when it came to drugs--it was just _wrong_, and while film auteurs might laugh at the homage to monster films when Uma Thurman sits up suddenly after receiving an intracardiac injection of adrenalin, most stupid goofs are inclined to take what they see on the screen at face value. I dunno how many times I've heard people repeating the details of that scene as if they read it out of the PDR drug reference. ------------------------------ From: CharlieX@ix.netcom.com (Charlie Bender) In case your curious Richard, They use Narcan (sp?) in the states. It apparentlys works by binding to all receptor sites in the brain for narcotics. It will bring a person down almost instantaniously.