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Almost Died
Methylphenidate, Cannabis, Lorazepam & Tobacco
Citation:   A. Person. "Almost Died: An Experience with Methylphenidate, Cannabis, Lorazepam & Tobacco (exp36391)". Erowid.org. Apr 18, 2007. erowid.org/exp/36391

 
DOSE:
81 mg insufflated Pharms - Methylphenidate (ground / crushed)
  3 bowls smoked Cannabis (plant material)
  4 joints/cigs smoked Tobacco - Cigarettes (plant material)
    IV Pharms - Lorazepam (liquid)
BODY WEIGHT: 149 lb
Before this, I had mostly used uppers on a utilitarian basis, taking a few 54 milligram pills to stay up with friends and such. I never really considered it a recreational drug, and never sought it out. I only did it when it came my way, and when I had a definite purpose in mind.

A couple friends of mine- let's just call them 'M' and 'D'- invited me over for an all-nighter of sorts. When I arrived, they had amassed a large quantity of the pills and were chopping them into fine powder. M offered me a rather large line, which I knew to be 81 milligrams of methylphenidate, for I had watched him add each individual pill to the powder. I took it in a period of 5 minutes, and lit up a cigarette.

An hour passed, and I felt nothing. If anything, I was feeling more tired than before- quite a weird thing to happen with a drug that has only affected me by eliminating my need to sleep. I plopped down on their couch and told them to wake me up in an hour.

During that time, I really did feel exhausted. My body didn't feel spazzy or 'speed-like' either, it simply wouldn't let me sleep. Instead, I was unwillingly and intensely focused on their conversation, and my heart was beating very fast. After an hour's time, I woke up, and smoked a couple more cigarettes with them.

At this time, I was beginning to feel rather sick, and extremely thirsty. I drank at least 4 pitchers of water in half an hour's time. I told my friends how tired and bad I felt, and they were shocked. They thought (as did I at the time) that I had some ridiculously high tolerance to the substance.

A friend (A) stopped by with some bud. When feeling physically bad, natural pothead instinct calls for a smoking session. I took one hit off a bong loaded with some medium-grade grass, and instantly felt 100% better. I wasn't feeling stoned at all, just not physically bad like I had been that evening. 'So,' thought I, 'since you are feeling better, why not get stoned with your friends?'

We smoked a couple more bowls, after which I began to feel kind of strange. Not a normal, stoned feeling, but this gross sensation that managed to be fake and 'druggish' but simultaneously sober (as opposed to how I would normally be after smoking that amount). The perceptual effects of pot were all there, but I felt intensely focused and very much sober. Then things took a turn for the worse.

I noticed my heart was racing, and that I had this weird pressure in my chest...I would start moving random parts of my body for no reason, and was also twitching some...my speech was difficult to articulate, and my motor skills were slightly impaired. 'A' left, leaving me to my friends, whom I promptly told how shitty I felt. M took my pulse, I don't remember how high it was, just the look of astonishment on his face. He told me to sit on this huge, padded chair, and D brought me water. He took it again, and it was lower...but the chest pains had increased terribly. They would shift all over my entire chest/abdomen, and felt absolutely horrible. My heart felt like it was about to explode, and I had to concentrate very hard to breathe right. As if on cue, about 6 of our friends showed up- I didn't want them to know what was happening and I was starting to panic, so I asked D to go in the other room with me, and M stayed in the main room with everyone else.

I told him I was really worried and twitched quite a bit in the process of this.

I had this weird moment of clarity. Something I wouldn't attribute to the drugs as opposed to the fact that I thought I was going to die. I told him how much I loved my friends & family. How I didn't have any grudges anymore and just squeezed his shoulder for a couple of minutes while he smoked cigarettes and worried.

Before everyone had showed up we had been talking about getting me to a hospital, but our ride had left. I told him I would take an ambulance if I had to. It was that bad. He asked me if I was sure, and I said yes...so he told M he was calling 9-11, and did so.

Fast forward a bit...

I was laying down on their couch, as per the operator's instructions. Medical personel (?) and a few cops rushed in, and my blood pressure was taken while one of the cops started telling me how much trouble I was in (how appropriate). One of the medics brushed him aside, and told me to walk into the ambulance, where they tied me to a stretcher.

They brought me into the ER of some hospital that specializes in drug-related incidents. They monitored my heart, and noticed that it fluctuated quite a bit. I don't remember much from this time, just that my heart rate spontaneously sky-rocketed, and they rushed a lady in there to inject me with Ativan. Immediately, I could hear the heart monitor's beeps get lower and lower, but up they soared again, and they gave me another shot of Ativan.

I'm not sure how many times this continued, but I remember towards the end, they gave me one last shot and I felt the chest pain immediately subside. A fluid feeling consumed my whole body, and I felt mentally and physically relaxed. A rippling sensation in my vision occurred, and spread out, like a rock hitting water. Gaping up at the sky roof, I noticed little black objects floating out of it. These were soon nullified by an intersecting plank of wood that formed a cross, which started glowing. I'm not Christian in the least, but I started thinking about Jesus for some strange reason. It was my last thought before passing out. I believe that was when my mom arrived.

***
I was told I was close to having a heart attack , and that the combination of methylphenidate and pot gave my body some weird neurological reaction which made my muscles tense up.
***

I came home very sedated, to a very loving & undeserved mom. I called my girlfriend when I woke up and cried to her for half an hour, and worried the fuck out of my 2 best friends, who I cannot really have contact with anymore. All in all, it was a stupid and life-threatening thing to do. I didn't do much that day. I talked to my mom for a bit, who was pretty understanding of the incident.

I also had a visit with my girlfriend. Seeing her face made me burst into tears.

I'm hardly one for preaching, but I wanted to let people know this story so they could exercise more caution with their drug use. I would recommend staying away from this shit, period. Methylphenidate is a Schedule II stimulant, right along with cocaine and meth. It's not worth messing with.

Take your life into consideration before you do any drug, please. Take the people who love you into consideration. That's what I've learned from this...how much people care about me.

I haven't read any reports like this, so it really surprised me, but I have never reacted to it this way before, so don't get the mistaken impression that if you did it once and were alright, it will always be that way.

Exp Year: 2004ExpID: 36391
Gender: Male 
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Apr 18, 2007Views: 41,897
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Pharms - Methylphenidate (114), Cannabis (1) : Combinations (3), Difficult Experiences (5), Bad Trips (6), Overdose (29), Health Problems (27), Small Group (2-9) (17)

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