Cocaine use is on the rise in America. Many people are mixing cocaine with prescription opioids, like Lorcet. This can lead to some devastating issues. Cocaine is a stimulant, and hydrocodone bitartrate is a depressant. This means that these two substances will often cancel one another out. This means that it’s easy for cocaine to mask Lorcet overdose symptoms.

The cocaine can also dull the effects of Lorcet. Unfortunately, it is also cleared much more quickly than Lorcet. Once the cocaine is cleared from the system, the full effects of the Lorcet may cause the user’s system to become highly depressed. It could even lead to an overdose.

Another important thing to note is that cocaine can often hide Lorcet overdose symptoms. Those who abuse both substances at the same time may not even notice that they are overdosing.

Another substance that should never be mixed with Lorcet is alcohol. Both alcohol and Lorcet have the same effects on the CNS. They are both depressants. Those who mix alcohol and Lorcet together are much more likely to experience respiratory depression and failure, as each drug will magnify the effects of the other.

Combining Lorcet and alcohol can also lead to an impairment of judgment, decreased cognitive function and a loss of psychomotor skills.

Benzodiazepines and opioids simply don’t mix. Both of these drugs also depress the CNS, and mixing the two can lead to slowed breathing, difficulties breathing and even death.

If you are currently taking benzodiazepines, you must let your doctor know before taking Lorcet as well. Your doctor will need to weigh out the pros and the cons to figure out what may work best for you.

The other active ingredient in Lorcet is acetaminophen. Drug users need to be careful, as this drug is also reactive with other prescription drugs. More importantly, acetaminophen and alcohol do not mix well.

If you mix acetaminophen with alcohol, you can damage your liver. Most of the enzymes that break down acetaminophen are found in your liver. If you take acetaminophen and alcohol at the same time, alcohol will affect the enzymes that metabolize acetaminophen. This increases your risk of severe liver damage.

Which people are more likely to face an overdose? There are some risk factors that can make a person more likely to overdose on Lorcet. You are more likely to overdose on Lorcet if you:

• Use the drugs in a non-prescribed way, like crushing and snorting the pills
• Take an opioid that your system isn’t used to or switch to a stronger opioid
• Take a large dose of Lorcet after a period of not abusing it
• Purchase Lorcet from an illegal avenue, as it may be mixed with other substances
• Mix Lorcet with alcohol and other substances
• Take a higher dose than you’re used to
• Have a medical condition that prevents you from metabolizing the opioid efficiently

Those who struggle with co-occurring disorders may also be more willing to take risks when it comes to abusing Lorcet. Self-medication may cause these people to use Lorcet in a way that it shouldn’t be used.

So, you walk into a room and you find a loved one or a family member passed out. You notice that there’s an empty bottle of Lorcet on the floor or the table, and you also notice that the affected individual has bluish lips and nail beds.

“Between 2016 and 2017, opioid overdose death rates have increased by over 54% in 16 states.”

What you do next will determine whether or not the overdose victim will survive this ordeal. The first thing that you should do is call 9-1-1. You need to get the overdose victim help immediately. Call 9-1-1 and provide the operator with as much information as possible. This includes:

• The overdose victim’s body fat percentage, weight, height, age and gender
• Whether the overdose victim is breathing and his or her overall physical condition
• The length of the abuse, the frequency of which the drugs were taken and whether the drugs were abused with other substances
• Whether the overdose victim struggles with a co-occurring mental health disorder and needs dual diagnosis treatment
• Whether the overdose victim has any medical allergies or other health conditions

Once you’ve gotten off the phone, try to stay with the overdose victim for as long as possible. It’s best if you can wait until help arrives. You may even want to consider keeping the doors unlocked and open, so that the emergency responders can have easy access into the home.

If the overdose victim is still conscious, try to keep him or her awake. This can be difficult, as one of the key characteristics of an opioid overdose is loss of consciousness. If the overdose victim loses consciousness, you’ll need to place him or her on the side. This is also known as the recovery position, and will protect the victim from suffocation or choking on his or her own vomit.

If the overdose victim stops breathing, perform CPR. Follow the instructions in the video below:

A Lorcet addiction will cause one’s brain chemistry levels to become all out of whack. To recover, the substance abuser will need to normalize their neurochemical levels. The most efficient way of doing this is through medication-assisted treatment (MAT) or medical detox.

Medical detox involves the use of medications to normalize brain chemistry levels. The medications can either mask or ease withdrawal symptoms. They can also stimulate the opioid receptors to prevent the withdrawal symptoms from turning deadly.

Different types of drugs are used in MAT. Some medications are approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) while others are used to treat specific symptoms. There is a subclass of MAT medicines that are classified as Opiate Replacement Therapy (ORT). These medications are opiates themselves.

The non-opioid medications that are often used to treat a Lorcet addiction include:

• Clonidine
• Lucemyra

Lucemyra is fairly new drug. Some rehab centers are still hesitant to use it; however, it has provided promising results in quite a few studies.

Opiate Replacement Therapy (ORT) involves substituting the strong opioids with weak opioids. These medications will attach to the opioid receptors in the CNS as well. They stimulate the opioid receptors to fool the brain that it is still getting the drugs that it needs.

The only difference is that these drugs are easier to taper from. Some of the most common medications used in ORT include:

• Methadone, which is a full opioid agonist. This medication works in the same way that heroin does. It attaches to the same receptors, and will have the same effects. The only difference is that it is easier for most recovering addicts to taper from this drug. Still, those who are not careful can develop a secondary addiction to methadone.
• Suboxone, which is a partial opioid agonist. This drug contains both naloxone and buprenorphine, and is similar to methadone. The primary difference is that it has a maximum threshold or a “ceiling effect”. Even if a drug abuser decides to take a larger dose, he or she will not feel the effects of the drug. This lowers the potential for abuse.
• Vivitrol, which is an opioid antagonist. This is a unique drug that attaches to the opioid receptors, but blocks them from being stimulated. This medication is injected once-a-month. Patients who would like to try Vivitrol must be opioid-free for at least 7 to 14 days.

ORT medications are the most popular options at the moment. They can be very effective if used properly. However, since these drugs also come with a potential for abuse, recovering substance abusers must be careful when taking them.