Opal
Opal is supposedly “the new crack,” as it is cheaper to distribute and more widely available. According to the woman in Opalo.mp3, this drug’s main distribution source is America itself.
More information about opal can be found in a message on Consolidated Mail Systems[1] from Angry Sniper to No One Important. The following information was taken from a memo possesed by a police officer.
Opal: opalo, crowbar, doors, dunk, juice, pearl
Opal (hycephamitamyn) Opal is commonly distributed as a black liquid. The most potent and efficient form of ingestion is intravenous. Opal conveniently comes in a small glass "I-VIAL" - a 1.5" small glass cylinder about the diameter of a small drinking straw with a small red cap at each end. Removing the cap on one end reveals a ready-to-insert 1/4" sterile needle, the other end reveals a trigger to release the pressurized contents directly into the bloodstream.
In middle and upper class populations, users drop or inject into the eye. This temporarily turns the whites of the eyes black.
Although most Opal users are standard drug abusers, a sizable minority feel that the drug produces a special, quasi-religious experience.
Opal is an extraordinary visionary awakener, it is not a recreational drug. It produces a profoundly introspective state of awareness that is useful for meditation, contemplation, and self-reflection. Its effects are unique and cannot be compared with the effects of other drugs. In the right setting, if you are prepared Opal is a shamanistic drug that will broaden your mind so you can experience a bigger totality of experience. Occasionally, opal users will experience the dark side of that totality and feel the rape of Gala from man's greed and short-sightedness. Users have reported that they feel diseased, or that they feel the presence of a larger being holding them accountable for the sins of humanity against the planet1.
Opal can produce euphoric and hallucinogenic effects. In addition, it may generate many of the same toxic effects seen with other stimulants such as cocaine. Many US emergency departments (EDs) now treat as many opal-intoxicated patients as methamphetamine-intoxicated or cocaine-intoxicated patients. Changes in mood, excitation, motor movements, sensory perception, and appetite appear to be mediated by central dopaminergic alterations. Serotonin alterations contribute to the amphetamine-related mood changes and psychotic behavior. Organic compounds stimulating limbic centers cause dream-like hallucinations.
1 From Opalescent Haze, an "underground" user site that has been allowed to run to provide law enforcement with a resource to identify users. Like heroin, cocaine, or methampetamine users, opal users a naturally self-limiting population regulated primarily by disease, overdose and the toxic effects of the lifestyle and drug abuse. Most will probably either "get clean" in about five to ten years or dies. However, since they are obviously guilty of drug abuse and subversive browsing, users from the site can usually be coerced into providing intelligence and information on other users and criminals they are in contact with.
The following post, from lovemonger of Another Version of the Truth, implies that Opal induces visions of The Presence, as described by Opalescent Haze:
Opal puts you in touch with it. I’ve been on the spike for the past four years. I stole money from my grandma, got caught, did it again anyway, just to cop. For the last couple months, it’s been too hard so I went to Opal.
I saw the Presence yesterday. At first I knew it was the drug, just gripping me, you know? And I laughed. Then the Presence turned around, like it was LOOKING for me.
Parallels have been drawn to Black Oil from The X-Files television series. (Someone with more knowledge about this should update.)
Opal, Cedocore and Wantzen-Tabard-Boutier
As detailed by the recently discovered page at Cedocore, Hycephamitamyn is the active ingredient in a drug developed by a company not previously mentioned in the World of Year Zero by the name of "Wantzen-Tabard-Boutier", for inclusion in the Cedocore portfolio.
This suggestion may be the missing link that identifies Opal as the concentrated form of Parepin, however no direct reference has been made so this suggestion is purely speculative.
In the "top secret report" produced by Wantzen-Tabard-Boutier, it is revealed that Opal is part of a key initiative to weaken sales of imported narcotics, to ween users onto something that has been produced in a controlled environment by a pharmaceutical company, and gain revenue from a market not previously tapped by pharmaceutical bodies. The result is that Opal is not known to be made by Cedocore/Wantzen-Tabard-Boutier and thus retains its credibility whilst providing a safer substance not "cut" with unknown substances or liable to be a catalyst for syringe sharing amongst users.
Whilst the "top secret report" is declared exempt from IEC evaluation by presidential order, no suggestion is made that the government sanctions this behaviour.
References
opalescenthaze.com -- Popped up on Feb 14, 2007. This site name is referenced in Consolidated Mail Systems, and is said to be an underground website for Opal users. However it has been proven to be FAKE.