Yes, they are all variants on opium or synthetic opium. Add morphine, heroin, plain old codeine.

Imodium.

Dilaudid, Demerol, Fentanyl, Morphine…all examples.

And you could OD on any of these and die, including specifically, Hydrocodone? Imodium? Any exceptions?
All they really talk about on the news is Fentanyl and Oxycontin.

Well, you couldn’t really OD and die on Imodium. You can’t even get high off it (if you could it certainly wouldn’t be an OTC). Yeah, it’s an opioid, but a very weak one that doesn’t pass the blood-brain barrier and only acts on your GI tract.

Fentanyl is talked about a lot because the drug dealers have started cutting heroin with Fentanyl. Addicts use a normal dose (for them) and they OD because the fentanyl is too powerful to cut with. Oxycontin is popular, again, because it is more powerful and more readily available than most other prescription opiods. The others I mentioned…Dilaudid, demerol, and morphine are all generally only given under direct doctor’s supervision…in the hospital for example.

Agree with the above comments. In addition, synthetic fentanyl relatives (carfentanyl, for example) are being developed in China for non-human purposes (moose tranquilizer, for example) and get manufactured in Mexico and distributed through the US. These fentanyl relatives are thousands of times stronger than morphine and are being cut in with other drugs, even marijuana, because they’re cheap and an enjoyable high. But they are incredibly lethal.

That’s why fentanyl is talked about on the news. It’s not the same fentanyl you get in a hospital or outpatient surgical procedure. It’s an analogue developed to be many, many times stronger and cheaper. Many/most people who use it don’t even know that their drugs are laced with it.

Oxycontin is talked about in the news because of the misleading pseudo-study that showed its lack of addictive properties (false), which led to its over-proliferation and widespread prescription, as well as the “pain as the fifth vital sign” change in medical practice. It is now widely available on the street, as the fed and states have locked down on prescribing practices (federal prescribing restrictions and statewide prescription drug monitoring systems). This is the “opioid epidemic” that gets thrown around – easy availability and misguided prescribing practices.

Tramadol is another that I don’t think anyone has mentioned.