Why Fentanyl Users Are Bent Over

GRAVITY –

July 17, 2024 – He has used fentanyl for about a year and a half and has found himself in that extreme bent-over position countless times. For him the drug was the only way he could get relief for his injured back and hernia. “That’s the only way you get relief,” he said of the drug.It’s become a ubiquitous sign of the fentanyl crisis unfolding on San Francisco’s streets: scores of seemingly comatose drug users slumped over in extreme positions.

Examples of the so-called “fentanyl fold” have been plastered on social media for years as San Francisco continues to try to get a grip on a highly visible opioid epidemic that claimed the lives of more than 800 people last year.

The effects of fentanyl can be deadly, and prolonged use can cause long-term health problems for users, even if they quit. But the reason for the fentanyl user’s distinctive fold witnessed across urban America has been elusive and difficult to explain.

The Chronicle spoke to fentanyl users and medical professionals in an effort to better understand this particular effect of fentanyl use.

A fentanyl user for the past two years, Jeff Barlow tried to explain why users tend to double over in such extreme angles.

During the fold, Barlow said, “your brain and body are at odds.”

Barlow, sitting last week outside the San Francisco Public Library in the Civic Center, gestured to a man nodding off after taking a hit of the deadly substance. He told the Chronicle that the drug puts you in a “sleep-dream state”