oxymorphone

While most bodybuilders are dedicated to training, diet and rest, some choose to engage in less healthy activities during the weekends when it’s time to party. Recreational drug use has been attributed to deaths of a few famous bodybuilders including Paul De Mayo and Eric Fromm. Recreational drugs attributed to bodybuilders includes marijuana, crystal meth, ecstasy, GHB, and special-K, amongst others.

Nubain (nalbuphine hydrochloride) is a synthetic narcotic agonist-antagonist analgesic of the phenanthrene series. It is chemically related to both the widely used narcotic antagonist, naloxone, and the potent narcotic analgesic, oxymorphone. Melvin Anthony talked about his addiction to Nubain in Muscular Development a few years ago. It became very popular with bodybuilders because it allowed them to work past their pain threshold and for some other reasons.

Unfortunately, many people ended up getting addicted to it, and just like other opiates, it is very difficult to come off.... narcotic analgesics tramadol, oxycodone, hydrocodone, OxyContin, morphine, fentanyl.

First let me emphasize that bodybuilders and also professional bodybuilders are just human, abuse of painkillers and anti-anxiety drugs are not unique to bodybuilding. What do you think of painkiller abuse by powerlifters, the NFL and let’s not forget wrestling.

Nubain is no longer available, companies that were producing it discontinued it. At the moment Hospira is the only manufacturer, but according to their website: “Hospira has nalbuphine on shortage due to manufacturing delays and back orders and the company estimates a release date of November 2014”. Because of this the demand for of oxycodone and hydrocodone increased enormously.

Recently there has been a crackdown on physicians and pain clinics. For instance Florida, now has a central prescription database for controlled substances; healthcare providers can log on and see what a patient has been prescribed. This has put an end to the 'doctor shopping', which in turn has decreased the supply available for sale on the street. Cheaper than "doctor shopping" is buying over the internet.

I saw some “to the point posts” in threads on painkillers in the discussion-fora’s:

****”Nubain killed a lot of people indirectly. I've been struggling with opiates on and off for the last year or so ranging from Percocet to sniffing Heroin (the RX opiates are harder to come off than heroin IMO), the withdrawals are far worse than the pain of low carbs and cardio and all that other bullshit. Luckily, I was always able to afford my habit due to good connections and making decent money. I never found myself using them directly for bodybuilding, but they are more bodybuilding-friendly than a lot of other drugs I’ve used with the exception of weed and mild benzo use.”