Speedballing is a dangerous practice that involves mixing depressant and stimulant drugs. While “speedball” was originally a term used to describe the cocktail of heroin and cocaine, in recent years, other drug combinations—such as fentanyl and methamphetamine—have become a major problem in the United States, driving the fourth wave of the opioid epidemic.
This article will shed more light on the risks and dangers of speedballing and polysubstance abuse as a whole.
What Is a Speedball?
A speedball is a form of polydrug abuse that refers to the combination of stimulant and depressant drugs. This drug combination typically involves opioids—either prescription or illicit—and cocaine, methamphetamine, or other stimulants. After mixing, these drugs are usually injected or snorted to achieve a stronger, longer-lasting “high.”
Some other street names for speedballing include:
- H & C
- Bombita
- Dynamite
- Snowballing
- Screwballing
- Powerballing
- Spaceballing
The effects of speedballing largely depend on the specific drug combination, the method of consumption, and the amount ingested.
However, stimulants and depressants have virtually opposite effects; while depressants slow down the function of the central nervous system (CNS), stimulants increase its function. Mixing them can overwhelm the CNS, increasing the risk of life-threatening events like overdose.
Common Speedball Drug Combinations
The most common speedball drug combination is mixing cocaine with heroin, an illicit opioid. This combination is usually injected intravenously to enhance and prolong the intoxicating effects of both drugs.
While cocaine and heroin are the “classic” speedball, other speedballing drug combinations are becoming increasingly more popular, including:
- Oxycodone and methamphetamine
- Morphine and methamphetamine or amphetamine
- Fentanyl and cocaine, methamphetamine, or amphetamine
Besides opioids, some people use other depressants, such as benzodiazepines, in combination with stimulants to create speedballs.
Moreover, goofballing—or mixing heroin with methamphetamine—has also become a common form of polysubstance abuse in the United States. Researchers from the University of Washington found that it is especially prevalent among women, homeless, and recently incarcerated people below the age of 30.
Side Effects of Speedballing
Speedballing can cause various side effects associated with both stimulants and depressants. For example, depressants like heroin can lead to drowsiness, slowed breathing, and lightheadedness, whereas cocaine and other stimulants can cause anxiety and increase blood pressure.
Even though some people engage in polysubstance abuse to counteract the undesirable effects of drugs (e.g., someone using opioids may take cocaine in an attempt to reduce drowsiness), speedballing may intensify the side effects of both drugs.
Common side effects of speedball drugs include:
- Stupor
- Sedation
- Paranoia
- Confusion
- Blurry vision
- Incoherence
- Irregular heart rate
- Difficulty breathing
- Sleep disturbances
- Cognitive impairment
- Involuntary movements
Moreover, speedballing can lead to life-threatening health conditions, such as respiratory failure, aneurysm, and stroke. It can also exacerbate mental health problems, including depression and anxiety.
Long-Term Effects of Speedballing
Some potential long-term effects of speedballing include:
- Seizures
- Heart attack
- Collapsed veins
- Gastrointestinal problems
- Heart, liver, kidney, and other organ damage
- Bloodborne diseases, such as hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and HIV
- Substance use disorder (SUD), including opioid use disorder (OUD)
Polysubstance abuse can also make you more impulsive and prone to taking risks, meaning speedballs can increase the risk of engaging in unsafe activities like needle-sharing. Besides that, it can lead to strained relationships, financial problems, unemployment, and legal issues.
Dangers of Speedballing
Besides severe side effects, the main dangers of speedballing include the increased risk of opioid overdose, substance use disorders, respiratory failure, and death.
Mixing drugs significantly increases the risk of overdose, which is an emergency that may have fatal consequences without prompt medical attention. Speedballing has claimed the lives of thousands of people, including celebrities like River Phoenix, John Belushi, and Chris Farley.
Statistics reveal that a staggeringly large number of drug overdose deaths involve multiple substances, such as alcohol, stimulants, opioids and benzodiazepines. For instance, 40% of overdose deaths involving illicitly manufactured fentanyl in 2020 also involved stimulants like cocaine.
Respiratory failure is another major—and potentially fatal—risk associated with speedballing. Mixing stimulants and depressants causes the body to process them simultaneously, creating a “push-pull” effect, which can cause a massive strain on your entire system, including respiration.
While depressants slow down your breathing, stimulants cause the body to use more oxygen. This can make it extremely difficult for you to get enough oxygen, increasing the risk of respiratory depression and respiratory failure.
Moreover, speedballing may make you more susceptible to addiction. A study by researchers from the University of Nebraska Medical Center found that the combination of methamphetamine and oxycodone affects neural function by dysregulating genes that play a pivotal role in the acquisition of addiction.
Speedballing Detox & Withdrawal
If you’ve been engaging in speedballing, detoxing under medical supervision is vital. This is because people dependent on speedball drugs, such as opioids and methamphetamine, experience various withdrawal symptoms once they stop taking them, increasing the risk of dangerous side effects and relapse.
Unfortunately, it’s not unheard of for people to die after relapsing. Due to reduced tolerance, even your typical dose may be potent enough to cause a fatal overdose in case of a relapse.
The onset and duration of speedball withdrawal symptoms primarily depend on the specific drug combination and the extent of the polydrug use. As a general rule, the longer you’ve been abusing multiple substances, the more intense your withdrawal symptoms will be. Combining different drugs at high doses can also exacerbate and prolong the withdrawal symptoms.
Some common withdrawal symptoms of speedballing and polysubstance abuse include:
- Chills
- Fever
- Tremors
- Diarrhea
- Seizures
- Vomiting
- Drug cravings
- Hallucinations
- Excessive sweating
- Nausea and vomiting
Speedballing withdrawal symptoms can be unpredictable. Going through opioid withdrawal alone is an extremely challenging and dangerous process. Mixing opioids with stimulants may make the withdrawal symptoms even worse.
Besides relapse, undergoing speedballing detox without medical assistance increases the risk of severe drug withdrawal symptoms and potentially life-threatening complications, such as dehydration. Seeking professional help, therefore, is the safest and most effective way to break the cycle of polydrug abuse.
Polydrug Use Risks and Dangers
Polydrug use refers to the practice of taking several substances simultaneously or within a short time.
Although some people partake in polydrug use, including speedballing, to enhance the effects of one or more drugs and create a stronger “high,” it is also possible to engage in it accidentally. For instance, illicitly obtained drugs may be laced with other—often more potent and more dangerous—substances.
Whether intentional or not, polydrug use comes with considerable risks and dangers. More specifically, it significantly increases the risk of:
- Drug overdose
- Serious side effects
- Severe withdrawal symptoms
- Drug dependence and addiction
- Exacerbation of mental health conditions
Mixing drugs may also affect your body’s ability to process and eliminate them, which can also cause them to accumulate in your system, further increasing the risk of overdose. If not treated quickly, an overdose can be deadly or lead to brain injury, coma, and other adverse events that may have lifelong consequences.
Unfortunately, polydrug use can make it more challenging to recognize and treat drug overdoses, as it can lead to unpredictable reactions and mask overdose symptoms. It can also pose challenges to the treatment of substance use disorders.
Ultimately, you should never mix different substances—be they illicit or prescription opioids, stimulants, anxiety medications, etc.
Physical Dependence and Addiction to Opioids
Physical dependence, addiction, and overdose are among the greatest dangers people taking opioids face. Speedballing can increase this risk even more than taking opioids on their own. Nonetheless, anyone using opioids, even those who take them as prescribed, can become dependent since these drugs affect the brain on a chemical level.
Although these conditions often co-occur, opioid dependence differs from opioid addiction in that it is mainly physical. People dependent on opioids have to take them to function normally.
By contrast, opioid addiction is predominantly psychological; it causes people to lose control over their opioid use. Those addicted to opioids cannot stop taking them, even when it leads to relationship, financial, legal, health, and other problems.
Luckily, both opioid dependence and addiction can be treated.
Signs and Symptoms of Opioid Dependence
Opioid dependence is characterized by the following signs:
- Tolerance. Repeated opioid use alters brain chemistry; it causes the brain to stop producing endorphins and increase the production of opioid receptors, leading to tolerance. Once you develop tolerance, you won’t feel the drug’s effects without increasing the dosage. If this happens, consult with your doctor, as taking opioids in larger amounts than prescribed is a form of opioid abuse and may lead to overdose.
- Opioid withdrawal symptoms. People dependent on opioids experience physical and psychological symptoms—such as insomnia, cravings, muscle aches, and nausea—upon drug discontinuation. Because of this, many people are forced to continue taking opioids, even when they no longer need them.
ANR Treatment for Opioid Dependence and Polydrug Abuse
Accelerated Neuro-Regulation (ANR) is a revolutionary treatment that can help you conquer opioid dependence and put an end to polydrug abuse within a matter of days. It has helped nearly 25,000 people worldwide safely and effectively break the chains of opioid dependence.
ANR stands out from other opioid treatment programs as the first and only treatment that tackles the root cause of opioid dependence rather than just its symptoms. It restores the brain to its pre-addiction state by re-regulating the endorphin-receptor imbalance resulting from prolonged opioid use.
Since ANR treats the neurochemical causes of opioid dependence, it negates withdrawal symptoms, thereby eliminating the risk of relapse. The procedure takes only 4–6 hours, whereas the hospital stay for most ANR patients lasts just 36 hours.
Most importantly, ANR is very safe. It can be safely performed even on those with heart disease and other medical conditions, as it is tailored to each patient individually.
Furthermore, the ANR treatment is performed by a team of highly experienced board-certified healthcare professionals in an ICU setting of accredited hospitals. For your comfort, the procedure is performed under sedation, making it virtually painless.
For more information, contact us for a free, 100% confidential consultation today!
Key Takeaways
Now that you’ve made it to the end of our speedballing guide, let’s summarize what we’ve learned:
- A speedball is a combination of stimulant and depressant drugs, such as heroin and cocaine, oxycodone and methamphetamine, and fentanyl and cocaine.
- Speedballing can have unpredictable and life-threatening consequences, including the increased risk of severe side effects, substance use disorders, overdose, and death.
- ANR is an innovative treatment that can help you overcome opioid dependence within days by repairing the damage opioid use causes to the brain.
Speedballing FAQ
It is extremely dangerous to mix opioids with other drugs without the doctor’s approval. Not only does it constitute opioid abuse and increase the risk of opioid dependence and addiction, but it can also lead to severe side effects, overdose, and death. Some drugs you shouldn’t mix opioids with include but are not limited to alcohol, benzodiazepines, and muscle relaxers.
Speedballing can overwhelm your body, as depressants and stimulants have different—and even opposite—effects, creating a “push-pull” reaction. It can lead to various side effects, including extreme drowsiness, confusion, and irregular heartbeat. Some of these, like respiratory problems, may be fatal.
A speedball high is usually intense and long-lasting. However, in some cases, stimulants and depressants may counteract each other’s effects, creating a false sense of sobriety. This can make you more likely to engage in dangerous behaviors, such as driving while intoxicated.
It is very dangerous to combine stimulants and depressants. The combination of stimulants and depressants—speedball—may lead to severe adverse effects, including stroke, respiratory failure, and overdose, which can be deadly if not treated promptly. It can also cause permanent organ damage and make you more likely to develop a substance use disorder.
You can mix some types of painkillers, such as ibuprofen and acetaminophen. However, most pain medications should not be mixed due to the risk of dangerous drug interactions. For example, taking Percocet® with acetaminophen may lead to liver injury. If you aren’t sure what types of painkillers can be safely taken together, consult your doctor.
Additional Information:
How Long Do Opioids Stay in Your System?
