Grin of the Krokodil

Krokodil is the street name for the drug desomorphine, an opioid that emerged from Siberia as an extremely powerful pain killer now mostly used as a recreational drug. It produces a short but extremely intense ‘high,’ said to be many times that of heroin. However, that ‘high’ comes at a very heavy price because the caustic nature of the drug aggressively destroys a user’s bone and tissue from the inside out. Even knowing that, users flock to the drug willing to accept intense self-destruction for the drug’s all-important, very addictive ‘high.’
But Barkley ‘Bar’ Cassidy, investigator for a criminal defense law firm, hears a rumor that a brilliant young chemist has discovered a way to eliminate all of the negative aspects of the drug without compromising its ‘high,’ making Krokodil actually safe to use.
Bar’s problem is that all of the most notorious drug cartels along with an undercover government agency are trying to get their hands on the formula first. And they’ll stop at nothing to get it.