Alcohol diazepam death and

Although "just say no" is certainly the safest position to take on recreational drug death, the vast majority of humans ignore this advice. Some use alcohol, nicotine or caffeine; others take buy upjohn xanax online medicines in ways other than as prescribed; others use illegal drugs like marijuana, cocaine and heroin.

Add that all up and a significant majority of the population is "under the influence" at any given time. Consequently, we owe it to diazepam and alcohol to understand the risks involved with using these drugs. To avoid the kind of accidental overdose that seems to have killed Alcohol diazepam death and Ledger, we need to understand several important facts.

First, if I could only impart one lesson about reducing overdose risk, it would be this: That is, don't take "depressant" drugs-- drugs that make you calm or sleepy, not depressed!!! This category includes sleeping pills. These include benzodiazepines like Xanax, Valium and Clonopin--chemical names for this class of drugs tend to end in -zepam. So, valium is diazepam, etc.

The category also includes diazepam and alcohol death drugs such as Ambien and Sonata as well as drugs like barbiturates which are rarely prescribed these days. Another category "death" depressant drugs is opioids: These include heroin, Oxycontin, Vicodin, codeine and similar painkillers. Antihistamines like Diazepam and alcohol and Unisom are also depressants. The most commonly used depressant drug is alcohol, however.

Death drugs across these categories is the riskiest type of drug use there is, especially if some of them are injected. The overwhelming majority of overdose deaths result from mixtures of depressants: According to the xanax and hand tremors Drug Abuse Warning Network, more overdose deaths are caused by opioid mixtures than by any other single drug or combination of drugs [PDF].

Cocaine use is reported in a significant minority of overdose deaths: Heath Ledger appears to have been one of the less-common cases in which a mixture of benzodiazepines, benzodiazepine-like drugs and antihistamines was fatal. His case may also be an example of the second key fact I'd love to impart in sane risk-reduction education: This means you can literally overdose on an amount of drugs that previously would not even have been enough to get you high.

While relapsing is obviously not advised, if someone insists on doing it, he should be aware of this fact and be very cautious about doses taken. There are death addicts who go into detox deliberately seeking this effect: Failing to take tolerance into account can be deadly, however: Obviously, we'd prefer no one to ever overdose and no one to ever relapse: Diazepam and alcohol death Politics Entertainment Communities.

Opinion HuffPost Personal Videos. I'll post soon about how to save lives in the crucial time following an overdose. Maia Szalavitz, Contributor Author, Journalist.