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Colin Kroll, Founder of HQ Trivia and Vine, Died of Accidental Drug Overdose (nbcnewyork.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the rest-in-peace dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from NBC New York: Colin Kroll, the co-founder of HQ Trivia and Vine, died of an accidental overdose, the city's medical examiner announced Tuesday. According to the autopsy results, Kroll died of "acute intoxication due to the combined effects of fentanyl, fluoroisobutyryl fentanyl, heroin, and cocaine." Kroll, 34, was found dead in his SoHo, Manhattan, apartment on Dec. 16, 2018. Police responded to a 911 call for a welfare check at the Spring Street apartment where they found Kroll unconscious and unresponsive in a bedroom of the apartment, a New York Police Department spokesman previously told NBC News. Kroll was named the chief executive of HQ Trivia, a phone-based trivia platform, in September. Prior to that, Kroll co-founded Vine, the popular short-form video service acquired in 2012 by Twitter. Vine was discontinued four years later.

57 of 117 comments (clear)

  1. Don't do heroin, kids by Fwipp · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Out of all the drugs out there, stay away from heroin.

    1. Re:Don't do heroin, kids by sexconker · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Odds are it was the fentanyl that got him.

    2. Re:Don't do heroin, kids by PopeRatzo · · Score: 2

      Odds are it was the fentanyl that got him.

      Probably. Most of what passes for heroin these days in the chic set is actually fentanyl, watered way down.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    3. Re:Don't do heroin, kids by Stolovaya · · Score: 1

      One shouldn't, but if you are going to do heroin, Jesus, don't take it with anything else. This combination just kinda screams "suicidal" to me.

    4. Re:Don't do heroin, kids by Type44Q · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I've heard that fentanyl is added to coke to offset the effects of the meth.

    5. Re:Don't do heroin, kids by Comrade+Ogilvy · · Score: 2

      Probably. Mix a little heroin plus a little fentanyl with a good amount, water it down, and sell it as a more expensive real heroin. Bigger profits.

    6. Re:Don't do heroin, kids by Narcocide · · Score: 1

      It screams "make it look like an accident" to me.

    7. Re:Don't do heroin, kids by alvinrod · · Score: 5, Informative

      If he had cocaine in his system he was likely taking it with the opioids, which is a pretty deadly combo. Of course fentanyl is deadly itself. This article has an image showing what a lethal dose looks like so it's easy to see why you can so easily end your life accidentally.

    8. Re:Don't do heroin, kids by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      This sounds like the sort of logic that only a true addict could have come up with.

    9. Re:Don't do heroin, kids by Mashiki · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Or carfenanil, which is much stronger and is being used to cut drugs more often as fentanyl is being squeezed dry. Carfenanil is just plain nasty, a grain the size of sand will either put you into a coma you never wake up from, or will kill you. I do mean it's nasty, it's easily absorbed(skin/lungs/mucus membranes) and has a long half life in the body. The biggest bust in the US has been about 6kg and they called in a hazmat team for it, and the unlucky cop that found it nearly died via OD from a trace amount in the air. Here in Canada it was 42kg and they considered demolishing the house by a controlled burn if they couldn't get a hazmat team in to deal with it.

      Screwed up thing about the bust in Canada, you might remember the mass shooting in Toronto a year or so ago. The shooters brother(also likely the source of the gun) was running the stuff, and has been in a coma ever since they found it.

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
    10. Re:Don't do heroin, kids by LostMyAccount · · Score: 1

      Why bother with blending with heroin at all? Why not just cut fentanyl to super-strength heroin potency and sell it as your super strength heroin?

      It makes logical sense -- fucking fentanyl is hard to cut to a dose that won't kill an entire division of infantry at once, I can't imagine getting a partial dose useful for boosting weak heroin is easier.

      If the "drug lords" could ever get just enough chemistry to *reliably* cut fentanyl to heroin strength, its going to make the opiate problem that much worse. AFAIK, fentanyl is made via total synthesis, while heroin is still derived from opium, which is somewhat worse from a supply chain perspective. Total synthesis can be done anywhere, and doesn't have tell-tale poppy farms.

    11. Re:Don't do heroin, kids by bickerdyke · · Score: 1

      Follow the Wikipedia link about "Speedball" several postings up from here for details about that combo.

      --
      bickerdyke
    12. Re:Don't do heroin, kids by s122604 · · Score: 1

      Fentanly's advantage over heroin is that a dealer can make one score of a kilogram from china at a cost that is translate to pennies a dose, and basically be set for a career of dope dealing.

      Not a junkie, but what I've heard from folks I know is that the fentanyl high is less euphoric than a true heroin high. Also doesn't last as long.

    13. Re:Don't do heroin, kids by s122604 · · Score: 2

      Yep, carfenanil is another order of magnitude in potency from fentanyl.
      At that point, you basically have a chemical weapon... It's not hard to speculate how some ISIS type person could use it as such.

    14. Re:Don't do heroin, kids by ScentCone · · Score: 1

      Odds are it was the fentanyl that got him.

      The odds are that choosing to use heroin in the first place got him on the train to fentanyl.

      --
      Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
    15. Re:Don't do heroin, kids by BringsApples · · Score: 1

      Coke and meth are 2 different drugs. Fentanyl is added to heroin to make it more seem more potent.

      --
      Politics; n. : A religion whereby man is god.
    16. Re:Don't do heroin, kids by sixsixtysix · · Score: 1

      Odds are it was the fentanyl that got him.

      The odds are that being prescribed codeine/oxy/etc in the first place got him on the train to heroin, which had a transfer to fentanyl.

      FTFY

      --
      ...
    17. Re:Don't do heroin, kids by fafalone · · Score: 1

      Don't legislate prohibition, politicians! Don't support it, everyone!

      The fentanyl crisis was directly precipitated by abruptly limiting or terminating access to known-dose pharmaceutical products. Everyone with a clue knew the opiate crackdown would cause an OD spike. Everyone involved in passing, enforcing, or supporting these policies has blood on their hands. The dealers who sell products of unknown potency are more culpable, but those who created, enforced, or supported that situation despite expert advice informing them of the consequences aren't fully innocent. And, they bear even more responsibility to the people who've killed themselves after being forced to go from livable discomfort to bedridden agony as their prescriptions were cut or terminated. The myth that alternatives always work better is bullshit, and the 'study' showing NSAIDs are as effective is garbage science specifically designed to limit its scenarios to reach the desired outcome (they used subclinical dosages of the opiates, 5mg of hydrocodone doesn't do much? ya don't say), twisted into worse propaganda (tiny dose for minor pain -> all doses for all pain-- even Ars Technica (and here, IIRC) peddled this deliberately false headline).
      There were many ways to tackle the real problem of diversion and abuse without causing an OD and suicide spike while condemning loads of people to needless suffering. Those were proposed and rejected as the media and fools everywhere cheered an indiscriminate crackdown of forced tapers, forced cessation, refusal to treat pain in new patients at all, and imprisoning doctors. We once again took the path that maximized the negative outcomes while failing to achieve progress on the ostensible goals (overall abuse is up).

    18. Re:Don't do heroin, kids by Mashiki · · Score: 1

      At that point, you basically have a chemical weapon... It's not hard to speculate how some ISIS type person could use it as such.

      A bunch of intelligence agencies have already done a threat analysis on it, the declassified or non-restricted guesses are pretty nasty. Enough so that special warnings(in US, Canada and various EU countries) were issued a few years ago to watch for it.

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
    19. Re:Don't do heroin, kids by sound+vision · · Score: 1

      The reason to lace actual heroin with fentanyl, instead of making a product purely from fentanyl, is about appearances. Black tar heroin is a roughly-made plant product. It appears as a dark brown to black, highly viscous, tar-like substance with the faint smell of acetic acid from production impurities, and a distinctly bitter flavor from a mixture of plant alkaloids.

      If you simply put fentanyl in water - it looks, smells, and tastes like water. Someone who is used to buying black tar heroin is going to reject that immediately. To replicate the appearance, odor, and taste of black tar... I don't even know what you'd need to do, but it's going to be way easier to just use actual black tar heroin as your base material.

      Basically, in an alleyway, it's possible to gauge if there is heroin present in the material, but not possible to gauge if there is fentanyl. So, you get the heroin you are looking for, plus the fentanyl you aren't. "It's 10x stronger than last week's batch but I'm only charging you double." is where the profit comes from.

      What people aren't talking about as much is the presence of fentanyl in counterfeit pain pills. Outside of the pharmacies, there are more counterfeit fentanyl pills stamped with "Vicodin" or "Oxycontin" than there are actual Vic and Oxys. This is a lot more insidious, as it's easy to press a pill that looks identical to the real thing. These might also make their way into (for example) Grandma's medicine bottle, if her son is trying to replace the pills he took when he was hard-up. I believe what Prince overdosed on was nothing involving or pretending to involve heroin, but strictly counterfeit, fentanyl-based pain pills. This is a man who could have easily gone the Michael Jackson route and got whatever kind of meds he wanted from an actual doctor. Yet the fentanyl pills still ended up getting into his supply chain somehow.

      The government mortality stats don't differentiate "fentanyl sold as heroin" from "fentanyl sold as Vicodin", but if they did, I believe we would see the fake pills being the bigger issue than fake heroin. We would also see that the aberrant uptick in deaths from the "epidemic" directly corresponds with restricting the supply of legitimate pain pills and pain clinics... then the government would have to admit that their "solutions" have been totally counterproductive for preventing drug use, and are also putting the squeeze on legitimate patients... cold day in hell that that happens.

    20. Re:Don't do heroin, kids by sound+vision · · Score: 1

      Fentanyl (and/or similar substances) have already been weaponized in Russia, decades ago.
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      I'd also go into an analysis of how China is dumping fentanyl on the US as an act of economic war analogous to the Opium Wars in the 1800s - and taking much glee in the turnabout. But then I'd start sounding like a conspiracy theorist...

    21. Re:Don't do heroin, kids by LostMyAccount · · Score: 1

      So if black tar is highly viscous, basically tar-like, how the hell are they adding fentanyl to it? Is it happening at the "source" where they're cooking down opium to morphine base and then converting to heroin? It sounds extremely non-practical to try to add fentanyl to tar just from a materials properties basis.

      I've read that a lot of counterfeit pills are out there with fentanyl, and honestly, it's kind of what I would expect would happen with fentanyl. Mostly because it represents what I assume someone more forward thinking in the drug business would do -- come up with a generally reliably non-toxic method of blending fentanyl with a bulking agent to sane doses and then sell pills.

      It's kind of crazy, but I would expect whatever cartel/network who could sort out how to make pills at "reasonable" strength (similar to Oxy 30s or 60s) would end up with a decent business. I mean your customers aren't dying immediately and you have a product with broad appeal -- clean, non-scary pills for white collar types, and something with a lot of oomph for those who want to mainline, all in a simple and easy to carry form factor that slips into a bottle of over the counter medicine for no-fuss, no-muss storage and transportation.

  2. Fentanyl by HangingChad · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Because heroin and cocaine don't fuck you up enough?

    --
    That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
    1. Re:Fentanyl by Comrade+Ogilvy · · Score: 2

      Did he even know what is in the mix?

      It could well be that a middle man saw an opportunity to sell cocaine+heroin+fentanyl for a bigger profit than a comparable amount of cocaine+heroin. And many customers may actually like this better, at least the ones that live.

    2. Re:Fentanyl by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 1

      Just watch any major network at 9PM EST tonight.

      You mean 8 PM I assume

      No, he means 9 PM. You must be in the Central Time Zone. It's 8 PM CST, but 9 PM EST.

    3. Re:Fentanyl by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      While I don't necessarily agree that use of recreational (and highly addictive) drugs like heroin will result in productive and contributing members of society, having the "freedom" to make one's own choices in personal matters should take precedence. The only corollary I would make in this case is that society should not be burdened with maintaining these types of pathologies. One should be free to make poor choices, given they are subsequently also responsible enough to provide for their own sustenance. A century ago, most of these drugs (i.e. cocaine, opium, etc.) were available to the general populace, but those times also pre-dated the plethora of "free" social services for those less fortunate (through no fault of their own), such as AFCD, WIC,EBT cards, tax credits, public housing, Medicaid, etc.

      If people want to be considered mature adults able to make their own personal decisions (good, bad or indifferent), then they also need to take responsibility for those same decisions/actions. When they take actions known to be problematic to being self-sufficient, then they must also shoulder the consequences of those decisions. Certainly some people can dabble in all manner of "recreational" drugs and still care for their own needs -- but as reality has shown, not all can. Those prone to addiction (as shown by actually "becoming addicted" to some drug, whether it be alcohol, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, etc.) need to either refrain from future drug use or refrain from partaking in the societal safety net. With freedom comes responsibility, any other course is not sustainable in any successful society or culture.

    4. Re:Fentanyl by Pseudonym · · Score: 1

      One would think that a big-name tech entrepreneur could afford a reasonably clean supply.

      --
      sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f(q{sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f});
    5. Re: Fentanyl by illiac_1962 · · Score: 1

      The taxation is just serving to keep it underground. Treat it like coffee.

    6. Re:Fentanyl by Comrade+Ogilvy · · Score: 1

      It is not money but some kind of pride that prevents someone from being certain ahead of time, for timely medical care for foreseeable dangerous side effects of their lifestyle. That applies to both Colin Kroll and Michael Jackson. If either had someone reliable on hand actually checking their pulse at regular intervals, they would have gotten assistance in time to save their lives.

    7. Re:Fentanyl by n3r0.m4dski11z · · Score: 1

      If you knew anything about the hard drug scene you would know that all heroin and most cocaine is laced with fent these days. Its stupid cheap to obtain from the hundreds of chinese labs who synthesize it.

      --
      -
    8. Re:Fentanyl by LostMyAccount · · Score: 3, Interesting

      A century ago, most of these drugs (i.e. cocaine, opium, etc.) were available to the general populace

      Most of the available opiates were a lot weaker and diluted into oral tinctures that cuts their bio-availability. Most users weren't injecting them, and in fact smoking opium was the predominate form of "opiate abuse" into the 1920s.

      Succesive bans and increased enforcement pushed illicit varieties into their more concentrated forms to aid in evading enforcement. This is more or less what happened once the DEA cracked down on overprescribing oral narcotics. People switched from pharmaceutical grade and lower dose pills to street heroin, and when supply couldn't match demand, synthetics like fentanyl got into the mix, partially abetted by the ease of obtaining them from corrupt Chinese labs.

      I figure eventually a more or less reliable kitchen sink method is going to be developed for cutting and bulking fentanyl, some kind of solvent dilution combined with a binder which can be dried and handled at gram-size masses, capped into pills, etc.

      This will create real problems because what has really held heroin back has been its complex supply chain, from poppy field to consumer. If you can cut this supply chain to a single lab that can synthesize fenatnyl it creates a ton of problems for enforcement. One, you can't just trace shit from "farm to table" so easily, and fentanyl is so potent that in its raw form it greatly reduces smuggling risks.

    9. Re:Fentanyl by cayenne8 · · Score: 1

      This is exactly why recreational drugs should be legalized, and regulated. Only then can you be assured that what you've got is actually what the label says you've got.

      I'm thinking this is largely why someone like Keith Richards survived so many years of heroin use.

      From what I read, back in his day, he could afford to get pharmaceutical grades of things like coke and his heroin was pure, rarely bought from any low end street dealers, etc.

      Likely the purity of the stuff he did, was largely responsible for his surviving being an addict for so long.

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    10. Re:Fentanyl by fafalone · · Score: 1

      If you have the habit someone with his money can afford, your tolerance quickly escalates to the point where death from respiratory depression is impossible even if you take a dose orders of magnitude higher than normal. You know how you can't even get 5mg of oxycodone for a compound fracture these days? I've seen people inject thousands of milligrams in the space of a few hours.
      But even basic safety precautions prevent ODs in anyone with even modest tolerance. If it's a new batch, push in very slowly, you'll know if it's way stronger before a lethal dose goes in.

  3. Fentanyl is 100 times stronger than H by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2018/12/09/china-deadliest-export-fentanyl-editorials-debates/2229428002/ - 80 Americans a day = a lot, even for Heroin.

  4. This was an accident? by SirAstral · · Score: 3, Interesting

    That is quite the cocktail of drugs right there...

    Seems like less of a mistake and more like no fucks to give.

  5. Re:He choose to do drugs by jandrese · · Score: 1, Insightful

    This is like saying that someone who got in a car and was then killed when a semi-truck had a blow out right next to him and pushed him into a ditch didn't have an accident because it was his choice to get in the car.

    Unless we find a suicide note or some other indication that it was a suicide attempt it seems likely that it was an accidental overdose. Especially since fentanyl is so easy to OD on.

    --

    I read the internet for the articles.
  6. Re:He choose to do drugs by Comrade+Ogilvy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It is more like someone who is known to love to drive his sports cars 110mph deserved to die in a car accident.

    I have driven 100mph for a few moments in my life. But I sure would not make a habit of it, even if I owned an appropriate vehicle, because I do not want a minor mistake by myself or someone else to snowball into a stupid death.

    Did this guy deserve to die? I would say no. But he lived a life where a minor mistake by himself or someone else could snowball into a stupid death. He rolled the dice, and it came up snake eyes.

  7. Re:He coulda spent the money by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 2

    or spent some money on a TESTING KIT?

    --
    My God, it's Full of Source!
    OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
  8. Re:He choose to do drugs by ArchieBunker · · Score: 3, Insightful

    All these people who got hooked on prescription pain killers and then moved to heroin never once asked for help beforehand. They liked it.

    --
    Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
  9. Re:He choose to do drugs by drinkypoo · · Score: 1, Troll

    Addicts make poor decisions, like buying unregulated street drugs from people who don't get high on their own supply. The question is how he became an addict. Was it due to prescription drugs? If so, it's really not his fault his brain didn't work correctly.

    All these people who got hooked on prescription pain killers and then moved to heroin never once asked for help beforehand. They liked it.

    What part of "Addicts make poor decisions" did you find unclear? Which word was it? Or was it a particular syllable?

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  10. Re:He choose to do drugs by The+Evil+Atheist · · Score: 1, Insightful

    They have plenty of opportunity to not get addicted to the prescription stuff in the first place. It is their own fault they lack self control, and also their own fault that they looked to fix their pain with pills rather than live with a little bit of pain.

    --
    Those who do not learn from commit history are doomed to regress it.
  11. Re:He choose to do drugs by epine · · Score: 1

    This is like saying that someone who got in a car and was then killed when a semi-truck had a blow out right next to him and pushed him into a ditch didn't have an accident because it was his choice to get in the car.

    More like getting into a Prius in Fort McMurray during a blizzard warning at forty degrees below zero with no snow tires to contend against all the heavy trucks exiting town for an extra-long weekend, but I take your point.

  12. Re: He choose to do drugs by illiac_1962 · · Score: 1

    Doesn't work that way. You don't have a choice after it takes hold. Your mind is twisted.

  13. Re: It's like saying by illiac_1962 · · Score: 1

    That's a bit of hyperbole. It is more like riding shotgun with an Asian chick driving.

  14. If they could get help. by robbak · · Score: 1

    Get injured, get put on painkillers, lose job because of injury, insurance goes with it, not can only get treatment from shady doctors who are in the pay of the painkiller manufacturers, they get shut down. Now only source of medical treatment are emergency rooms, stil have pain and are addicted to opioids, and the only source left for them are dealers.

    Seems a quite likely progression.

    --
    Prediction for end of Universe #42: Fencepost error in Quantum_bogosort.cpp
  15. Speedballs by heson · · Score: 1

    For when you want to go out like a real superstar.

  16. The lie of "success" by lucasnate1 · · Score: 1

    How ironic, we keep being told that the way to be happy, the strongest expression of vitality, is to be an Entrepreneur, or a CEO. And yet, in order to sustain this type of life, one must poison himself like that man did.

    --
    Avantgarde Hebrew science fiction
    1. Re:The lie of "success" by couchslug · · Score: 2

      Sam Walton is quite the counter-example.

      Do stupid shit, die of stupid shit. None of those drugs were useful to sustain anything worth sustaining.

      --
      "This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
    2. Re:The lie of "success" by Mike+Van+Pelt · · Score: 1

      Yeah, like Steve Jobs. His billions didn't save him.

      Listening to his doctor might have.

      Organoholisticmacrobiotichomeopathicveganism didn't. By the time he realized it wasn't, it was too late for real medicine.

  17. Re:He choose to do drugs by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    " It is their own fault they lack self control, and also their own fault that they looked to fix their pain with pills rather than live with a little bit of pain"

    1. People are trained to trust doctors
    1b. Doctors are getting kickbacks in exchange for pushing certain drugs
    2. Have you ever lived with the kind of pain for which opiates are prescribed?
    3. Do you understand that pain affects people unequally?
    4. Who hurt you? Was it your parents?

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  18. Re: He choose to do drugs by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    The simple solution is to execute anyone caught selling drugs.

    Simple solutions only work for simple problems. Simple solutions are for simple people. Simple solutions are how we got where we are now (pain? medicate to hell and back!)

    The war on drugs has proven to be both a sham and a failure. It's a sham because big pharma is permitted or even encouraged to sell bad drugs that don't work right by the legal framework — one which they have purchased. It's a failure by any reasonable measurement.

    Countries where they execute drug dealers still have illegal drugs, so your statement is false on every level.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  19. 'accidental'? by TJHook3r · · Score: 1

    With that amount of shit in his system I think the word 'accident' is a bit of a stretch!

  20. Re:He choose to do drugs by fropenn · · Score: 1

    It doesn't matter if the addicts chose to take drugs, if they were tricked into it by someone else, or deceived by the medical system...everyone deserves a chance to be redeemed and turn their lives around. And for that opportunity, they have to be alive.

  21. Re:He choose to do drugs by The+Evil+Atheist · · Score: 1

    1. And doctors (and the packaging) tell them exactly how much to take and when, regardless of how good it makes them feel. 1b. That's half the problem. The other half is people wanting only the easy fix. 2 & 3. And yet, people get addicted to "normal" pain killers, which they pop pills for the slightest pain. The slightest headache, pill. The slightest backpain, pill. 4. You lost the argument there, buddy.

    --
    Those who do not learn from commit history are doomed to regress it.
  22. Re:He choose to do drugs by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    You lost the argument there, buddy.

    No, sport, America is losing the argument, and only big pharma execs are winning.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  23. Re:He choose to do drugs by The+Evil+Atheist · · Score: 1

    So? Big Pharma has the blame.

    So do people who take painkillers for every little thing, and take them when not needed. You can't get addicted if you don't abuse them.

    --
    Those who do not learn from commit history are doomed to regress it.
  24. Re:He choose to do drugs by evil_core · · Score: 1

    You made my day.
    110mph in a sport car as exscessive speed? Really?
    I was driving 110mph regulary for many years(150 000mills totally, believe that over 50 of it was over 100mph) in Chrysler Grand Voyager and never had accident 110mph was the electronic limit for this car. Speeding in sport car starts probably over 150mph, but never had a sport car, so cannto tell
    Longer cars are usually more stable on the road and I fe;t uncomfortable/unsafe at 40mph in many small cars. Lack of skills is much more dangerous than speed.