Login or register (free and only takes a few minutes) to participate in this question.
You will also have access to many other tools and opportunities designed for those who have language-related jobs (or are passionate about them). Participation is free and the site has a strict confidentiality policy.
08:19 Dec 19, 2011
English to English translations [PRO] Slang / drugs
English term or phrase:"tapped it up like brown"
A cop from the Drug Squad says:
Fentanyl flooded Chicago a couple of years ago, the users didn’t know how strong it was.
Tapped it up like brown. Even licking the back of a spoon could have you dead within a minute. A heroin OD
relaxes its victim to death, right? With fentanyl, you're awake, you're aware, suffocating.
Apparently, brown means heroin.
But what does "they tapped it up" mean? Any ideas?
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 7 hrs (2011-12-19 16:13:44 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
to support my point:
..
But illegally fentanyl injection is used also by the drug addicts. This drug, because of its high potentiality, has become very popular among the addicts. The effect that fentanyl creates is almost similar to that of heroin but the feeling of euphoria and weightlessness is much more strong with it and the respiratory depression is also much. As its onset is very quick and intense, regular intake of fentanyl injection may lead to death. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fentanyl
The ambulance had been called to a private home where there were two people unconscious, a man and a woman. Both appeared to have had acute narcotic overdoses. It was later confirmed that they had shared (and injected intravenously) the contents of a transdermal fentanyl patch (5 mg) found at the scene. http://www.findrxonline.net/fentanyl-injection-information/
The ambulance had been called to a private home where there were two people unconscious, a man and a woman. Both appeared to have had acute narcotic overdoses. It was later confirmed that they had shared (and injected intravenously) the contents of a transdermal fentanyl patch (5 mg) found at the scene.
[..]
Surprisingly, this is the first report of death caused by intravenous misuse of a fentanyl patch, although there have been fatalities after oral ingestion.2 Non-fatal inhalational misuse has been reported.3 In one death (a funeral home employee who obtained a patch from a deceased person in a nursing home), the route of administration was never determined.4 Finally, there is a report of respiratory arrest from intentional intravenous misuse of transdermal fentanyl in a patient with chronic pain.
Once he knew how his body reacted to it he started to smoke it:
Make a spoon out of foil, cure the foil then stick a square (AFOAF started back at 100ug) sticky side down in the bowl. Lightly heat the bowl underneath and inhale the white fumes with a paper/foil/whatever tube. Doing this does lead to some fumes from the plastic of the patch being inhaled. AFOAF never experienced any problems from this, no cough or harsh smoke but it is possible to stick the patch to the foil, heat it to transfer the fent to the foil, then peal off the patch and reheat the residue. http://www.drugs-forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=148708#ixz...
this supports Charles' answer:
Once he knew how his body reacted to it he started to smoke it:
Make a spoo out of foil, cure the foil then stick a square (AFOAF started back at 100ug) sticky side down in the bowl. Lightly heat the bowl underneath and inhale the white fumes with a paper/foil/whatever tube. Doing this does lead to some fumes from the plastic of the patch being inhaled. AFOAF never experienced any problems from this, no cough or harsh smoke but it is possible to stick the patch to the foil, heat it to transfer the fent to the foil, then peal off the patch and reheat the residue.
Read more: http://www.drugs-forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=148708#ixz...
and tends to produce significantly worse respiratory depression, making it somewhat more dangerous than heroin to users. Fentanyl is most commonly used orally, but like heroin, can also be smoked, snorted or injected. Fentanyl is sometimes sold as heroin, often leading to overdoses. Many fentanyl overdoses are initially classified as heroin overdoses.
Fentanyl is normally sold on the black market in the form of transdermal fentanyl patches such as Duragesic, diverted from legitimate medical supplies. The patches may be cut up and eaten, or the gel from inside the patch smoked.
Another dosage form of fentanyl that has appeared on the streets are the Actiq fentanyl lollipops, which are sold under the street name of "percopop". The pharmacy retail price ranges from US$10 to US$30 per unit (based on strength of lozenge), with the black market cost anywhere from US$15 to US$40 per unit, depending on the strength.
Non-medical use of fentanyl by individuals without opiate tolerance can be very dangerous and has resulted in numerous deaths.[33] Even those with opiate tolerances are at high risk for overdoses. Once the fentanyl is in the user's system it is extremely difficult to stop it
llicit use
The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with the United States and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject. (September 2011)
Fentanyl powder seized by a Lake County Deputy Sheriff in Painesville, Ohio, where a male subject had been discovered unresponsive and struggling to breathe.[30]
Illicit use of pharmaceutical fentanyls first appeared in the mid-1970s in the medical community and continues in the present. United States authorities classify fentanyl as a narcotic. To date, more than 12 different analogues of fentanyl have been produced clandestinely and identified in the U.S. drug traffic. The biological effects of the fentanyls are similar to those of heroin, with the exception that many users report a noticeably less euphoric "high" associated with the drug and stronger sedative and analgesic effects
The use of fentanyl has caused death. Because the effects of fentanyl last for only a very short time, regular users may become addicted very quickly.Additionally, fentanyl may be hundreds of times more potent than street heroin http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fentanyl
As Ty mentioned it might be a typo, however to me it's more likely to be a typo for "lapped it up".
Urban dictionary gives nothing relevant for "tap it up"
Automatic update in 00:
Answers
18 mins confidence: peer agreement (net): +1
Injected it / Possible Typo
Explanation: I think there are 2 possibilities here:
1. It's a euphemism for injecting the drug intravenously. Maybe in reference to the way junkies often "tap" the vein before injecting.
2. Could be a typo for "taped it up" in reference to how it is packaged.
It's quite specialist slang, so it's impossible to be certain.
Ty Kendall United Kingdom Local time: 02:24 Native speaker of: English
possible referece to Ernest Brown (famous tap dancer)
Explanation: I am not even close to sure about this, but to me it sounds like it could be a play on words, with a reference to famed tap dancer Ernest Brown. As others said, "tapping it up" sounds like it means "injecting the fentanyl." People didn't realize how strong it was, so they were injecting it wildly (tapping it up) with no regards to the consequences...like Brown might tap his feet. Of course, in that case it should be "Brown" (with a capital B). I am just guessing, so this could be wrong, but I thought I'd throw it out there just in case.
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 1 hr (2011-12-19 09:42:51 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
Also: I'm not sure where Ernest Brown was born, but he died in Chicago and has surviving family in Chicago as well...so I imagine people from that area are probably very familiar with his work.
smoked it (by dipping a cigarette into it) like brown heroin
Explanation: This seems to me the most likely meaning.
"Brown" refers to brown heroin, which is diamorphine base, as opposed to white heroin, which is diamorphine hydrochloride. The brown, mostly from Pakistan and Afghanistan, is not as strong as white and is commonly smoked (despite popular images of shooting up, many heroin users smoke it rather than injecting it). Because brown is a base, it is not very soluble, and needs to be mixed with an acid to make it readily injectable. So this already points to smoking rather than injecting as the likelier meaning. http://www.nuaa.org.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=art...
"Tap up" is used in heroin slang for "tapping up a vein", making a vein stand out after strapping up with the tourniquet in order to inject the drug. But you don't "tap up" the drug itself, in this sense.
Fentanyl is a potent pharmaceutical narcotic analgesic, generally available in patches. It is about 100 times as potent as heroin. Injection by drug abusers is not unknown, but it is apparently problematic; fentanyl is usually consumed by mouth or smoked. Of these two modes of consumption, the one that would be used by those accustomed to brown is smoking; heroin is not taken orally. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fentanyl
This use of "tap" could be related to the expression "tap a cigarette" or "tapped cigarette", referring to dipping the lit end of a cigarette in cocaine and smoking the cocaine. I have not found it applied to heroin, but in principle it could be. This is a common and easy way of smoking a drug, though of course less effective than smoking it pure on foil ("chasing the dragon").
"tapped cigarette
a cigarette whose end (the end that you burn, not the filter) has been moistened and then dipped in cocaine
when smoked, you instantly get a slight high similar to the high you feel when you smoke crack. let me tap my cigarette in that coke before you cut it into lines i like to smoke tapped cigarettes because it's a great way to feel a crack-like high without actually having to say that you've smoked crack before" http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=tapped cigare...
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 2 hrs (2011-12-19 10:31:30 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
"I acquired some 50UG Duragesic (Fentanyl) patches. My question is this: How do I use these??? How do I get a Euphoric effect out of them?
[...]
Break the patches and dip a cigarette in the fentanyl then smoke it as a normal cigarette... One patch should be enough for more than one cig..." http://www.drugs-forum.com/forum/showthread.php?p=7637#post7...
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 3 hrs (2011-12-19 11:54:55 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
In principle, another thing you can do with both brown heroin and fentanyl is snort (inhale) it, but I've found nothing to indicate that "tap up" might have that meaning.
Charles Davis Local time: 03:24 Works in field Native speaker of: English
The translation workplace 
