Is there a safe way to measure illegal drugs to avoid OD?

Answer 1

This is difficult because you have to always be uncertain of the purity. Drugs are often cut (diluted), adulterated (contaminated), laced with other drugs, etc. Legalizing drugs would actually make them safer to a degree since there would be laws to help ensure purity and standardize the doses.

An old medical examiner show highlighted how even legal drugs can make illegal drugs more dangerous. Someone was taking legal knockoffs of illegal drugs, and they had to take at least 4 to get a buzz. Then they went to a party and took the same amount of actual drugs and died of an overdose. In that episode, someone also died from the fake drugs too, since they contained caffeine and antihistamines, which interacted with medications the teenager was already taking, and the teen was an athlete too.

While it is best to never use, more reasonable users typically start with the smallest dose or even a half of that, give it a chance to work, and then see how that works, and gradually increase until there is a reasonable high. If they are unsure of the quality, then they may take less than they normally do. That way, if it is a purer dose, then they would be less likely to OD if they "tested the waters" with a lower dose.