I’ve been reading an interesting book “Dream Land” by Sam Quinones, that chronicles the recent history of opiate use in the US. Much (so far) focuses on black-tar heroin abuse, and it causes me to wonder: Based upon my limited knowledge of the substance from the book, and depictions of its use in movies, documentaries, etc., it appears to be a solid substance @ room temperature that is liquefied by the application of heat, then injected intravenously with a hypodermic needle. Sooo…
Not to mention the overall gruesome concept of injecting a hot-molten substance into a vein:
It baffles me how this is physically possible. It would seem that the heroin would immediately begin to re-crystalize in the hypodermic, especially within the needle, thus preventing injection. But work it apparently does… Afterwards, what prevents this mass from instantly solidifying in the (relatively) cool blood stream, and causing a potentially fatal clot?
Well… suppose you had a sample of pure heroin. It would still be a solid at room temperature, right? Obviously you are not going to heat it until it melts (175 °C or so) and inject it into a vein. Pharmaceutical heroin is available as a hydrochloride salt which dissolves much more readily in water than the corresponding base, as can be generally expected from an alkaloid.
ETA according to Wikipedia, injecting black tar heroin is a bad idea compared to powder heroin. The black tar heroin is heroin acetate, but as a street drug also has plenty of unknown impurities.
You dissolve it into another liquid (which is easy enough to find out if you really want to know) then inject.During the heating or ‘cooking’ up process a lot of crap can be burned off the street grade heroin.
If the liquid is still warm enough and insufficiently diluted, yes it can set and can cause a thrombosis - but there are other drugs that are more commonly injected that are known for causing thromboses(sp?) At the extreme these can lead to loss of limbs or deep flesh ulcers - the blockage generally does not usually travel much further.
Injecting the tar is not a thing, I will leave you to find out about ‘chasing the dragon’. This will destroy your teeth, its a mark of such a drug user because its the front teeth that turn black and break down first.
As I understand it (IANAJunkie) you aren’t melting the heroin, you are heating up the powder so that it will dissolve more readily in water. Brown heroin needs an acid (citric acid or lemon juice) to dissolve it.
But it doesn’t come out of solution instantly upon entering the bloodstream. It is irritating to the vein, and repeatedly injecting the drug leads to the “tracks” we all have heard of.
You also don’t “smoke” heroin or opium in the way that tobacco or marijuana is “smoked” - you don’t set it smoldering and inhale the smoke, you heat it up and inhale the vapors. Like vaping.
Just to nitpick, pure heroin base (C[sub]17[/sub]H[sub]17[/sub]NO(C[sub]2[/sub]H[sub]3[/sub]O[sub]2[/sub])[sub]2[/sub]) is a white, crystalline substance and soluble in alcohol, not water, so it’s not the brown crap directly but rather the chemistry that affects the solubility.
I don’t think that tracks come from the drug itself, but from the needle making a whole bunch of holes repeatedly. Some years back, I needed frequent blood draws (so no substance at all actually being injected), and started to develop such tracks (which went away after I didn’t need the jabs so frequently).
Yes, it is from repeatedly injecting into the same vein, but in Europe it is common to mix heroin with citric acid or lemon juice, which is irritating as well. Cite. Incompletely dissolved particles can also contribute (cite - pdf.)
My direct knowledge of heroin use is, fortunately, limited, but in my experience the powder form is what’s dissolved and injected (or snorted). Black tar is heated and the vapors inhaled; not unlike smoking opium. This is in the US.
Also, a heavy but careful user can avoid track marks. I knew someone who injected regularly–died of it–but her arms were clean.
I would really like to see a cite for this. In my understanding, its not injecting the drug itself that causes dental (and other forms of) decay but rather the self-neglect that the addiction brings with it. This combined with an intense sweet tooth that is a side effect of use of the drug makes for some scary instances of decay and degradation in hardcore addicts.
Also, it wasn’t clear to me by your post but “chasing the dragon” meaning chronically attempting to match the first intial, most intense high one gets from heroin.
The reason addicts or heavy users have track marks is because they attempt to inject numerous times in veins that have collapsed. Some users have veins that collapse sooner than others but its pretty much a given if someone injects long enough. Its why long term users end up injecting in crazy places like toes or genitalia (for real).
Beg to differ. Out here in CA where tar heroin is perhaps more common, dissolving it in water and injecting is definitely a thing. Never a user, but I’ve known a few and seen the process firsthand. The injectors were usually farther along the addiction trail and regarded smoking it as ‘wasteful’.
I’ve never heard (doesn’t mean it’s not the case) that chasing the dragon causes your teeth to blacken. However, chasing the dragon isn’t about repeating that first high. It’s a method of using heroin. You put the heroin, black tar in this case, on piece of foil, hold a lighter under it and inhale the smoke that comes off of it with a straw.
Again, I’ve never heard of dental degradation from any kind of opiate use, though lack of brushing your teeth, especially if you fall asleep afterward, would probably lead to it. “Meth mouth”, on the other hand, is directly related to smoking meth. Ignoring your teeth is part of it, but more importantly, it dries out your mouth causing all the junk food you eat to not be washed away with saliva. Meth users also tend to grind their teeth.
TL;DR, chasing the dragon is a method of smoking heroin.
Also, i wasnt saying that heroin use in and of itself causes tooth decay. I said it’s a combination of the self-neglect that results from being an addict and the tendency to prefer sugary foods that is the culprit.
Lots of extraneous info offered up here, however; after following Shodan’s lead I found that heroin is not melted prior to injection as I thought, but rather put into solution with acidified (usually citric) water. The process is accelerated by the application of heat, then cooled before injection.
I wouldn’t always trust what I read on UrbanDictionary, but if you want to, the second definition in your link is about smoking it by inhaling the smoke when you heat it on tin foil.
I’m not sure why you’d counter what I said with just about exactly what I said.
However, looking at your post from a different angle, what I was saying is that heroin use may very well cause dental problems because you ignore your teeth and eat junk food. I was clarifying that some of the symptoms of Meth Mouth are more directly related to the drug use as opposed to just nodding off and/or being lazy about brushing your teeth.
So it’s a synonym for freebasing? Interesting. Learn something new everyday. I thought “chasing the dragon” was just a fancy way of saying “recreational usage of opiates”.
Chasing the dragon originally did refer to the method of heating and inhaling the vapors of the opium (heroin). Over time, however, the term became associated with chasing that first amazing high that never is able to quite be reached again.
ETA: So thank you, Joey P., I did learn something.