WTF. . .

[mr_lebowski]

19. Synthetic Opioids is a meaningless distinction ... since we're making bones ;)

The term 'Opioids' in it's current understanding (medically) encompasses everything from pure opium poppies to morphine to heroin to oxy to fentanyl. If it stimulates the body's opioid receptors (in particular the mu receptor), it's an opioid.

And there's not ALL THAT much difference between any of them, regardless whether they're derived directly from opium (poppies, morphine, codeine) or thebaine (a poppy product with minimal opioid-like properties but which serves as a pre-cursor for semi-synthetics such as hydro and oxycodone, or methadone), or entirely synthesized like Demerol & Fentanyl.

One exception being buprenorphine, which is an uber-long lasting drug that's only a partial agonist but with very strong binding affinity (in a sense, like naloxone or naltrexone ... which are opioid-ANTagonists, but also with very high binding affinity for the receptors) and hence works a bit differently from it's cousins ... recently used in treating addiction (aka 'subs'). It's also a semi-synthetic, derived from thebaine.

Also ... if you were an alcoholic 50 years ago, it's almost certain you're dead, esp. if you later became an opioid addict