# is heroin injected only? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 19, 2002, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-heroin-injected-only/109795 "2002-05-19T04:46:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2002, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-heroin-injected-only/109795/1 "2002-05-19T04:46:50Z")
I made a recent joke-post about snorting my Vicodin (as a whole pill) here [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=115647](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=115647) And that led me thinking about the scene in Pulp Fiction where she snorts the heroin and overdoses… …and it made me realize that I never hear of anyone doing heroin any other way than shooting up. Meth, for example, is snorted, swallowed, smoked, and injected. Marijuana is smoked or eaten. Cocaine is snorted, smoked, and I think injected, not sure about eaten… …so does anyone take heroin another way? Or is it injection-only? If it is, why is it? I have no idea why I’m curious about this, but I am. ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2002, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-heroin-injected-only/109795/2 "2002-05-19T04:50:50Z")
It depends on the quality of the herion. Way back years ago in Viet Nam the junkies used to put it in cigarettes and smoke it. But it was high quality. ---
**Author:** ![labboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@labboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/labboy)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2002, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-heroin-injected-only/109795/3 "2002-05-19T04:53:21Z")
You can take heroin anyway you want, but injection gives you the best high. The heroin costs the same no matter how you take it and most junkies don’t have money to waste. Most people are horrified by the idea of ‘shooting up’, but it’s not that hard. I’ll bet you diabetic grandmother gives herself insulin shots. ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2002, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-heroin-injected-only/109795/4 "2002-05-19T04:54:59Z")
Insulin shots are not the same as shooting up. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2002, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-heroin-injected-only/109795/5 "2002-05-19T05:02:59Z")
I think he meant that most people are scared of the idea of giving themselves an injection. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2002, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-heroin-injected-only/109795/6 "2002-05-19T05:46:19Z")
Speaking from first-hand observation, I’ll note that it can in fact be smoked. However my understanding is, in agreement with **labboy** , that most real addicts consider this wasteful. True addicts almost invariably go the injection route, both for the efficiency and the high. Also I’ve found that addicts I’ve talked to seem very into the whole ritual of ‘playing doctor’. Indeed for the hardcore addicts, who often get essentially no high at all from their fixes ( they just get “well” ), it often seems that the ritualistic aspect is the most pleasurable ( or maybe comforting is a better word ) part of the whole thing. - Tamerlane ---
**Author:** ![Lure](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ba8739/32.png) [@Lure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lure)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2002, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-heroin-injected-only/109795/7 "2002-05-19T06:20:02Z")
The newest I heard of was “chasing the dragon”,ie,smoking it in a hash pipe like affair.Done,as I understand it, with a cheaper grade H,like crack is to cocaine.Not that I had any personal experience with it,just what I gleaned from the Binion trial. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2002, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-heroin-injected-only/109795/8 "2002-05-19T06:20:57Z")
FYI when smoked, it is usually (specifics deleted – manhattan) This is generally referred to as Chasing the Dragon. Also it can be snorted, swallowed, or put ontn any other oraphis in the body that one choses. But injection is the generally the way it was done. Also, as I’m sure you figured out, the reason she OD’d in Pulp Fiction, was a combonation or thinking it was cocaine (which you’d do much more of at a time) and the fact that it was the REALLY good heroin. (It was called Mad Dog I think) ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Frink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/977dab/32.png) [@Mr.Frink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Frink)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2002, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-heroin-injected-only/109795/9 "2002-05-19T06:30:19Z")
To answer your question: Powdered Heroin is commonly snorted–probably more often than injected. Tar Heroin is often smoked. From what I’ve heard–in the '70s street heroin was of a very low quality, so one _had_ to inject in order to get high. Nowadays, the heroin is much stronger, so snorting is more effective. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2002, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-heroin-injected-only/109795/10 "2002-05-19T06:50:11Z")
Samuel l jackson in a interview talking about how he became addicted to heroin basically says that in the 60/70s most people started out sniffing/smoking it and then they moved on to mainlining it So one would gather that after you didnt get as high smoking or sniffing it after a bit and it like a step by step descent How ever I had a uncle that put a 357 to my head and made me promise Id never use anything harder than pot saying hed rather kill me now than see me kill my self has well killed any curisoity I had about trying anything like that ---
**Author:** ![DougC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2002, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-heroin-injected-only/109795/11 "2002-05-19T12:20:14Z")
- - - A well-traveled aunt told me that poor people in third-world countries can get drugs but not needles, so they slash their skin with razor blades and rub the drugs in the open wound. The lower-leg seems to be the preferred location, because they can wear something long to hide the appearance if they want to. - DougC ---
**Author:** ![Jervoise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d2c977/32.png) [@Jervoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jervoise)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2002, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-heroin-injected-only/109795/12 "2002-05-19T15:29:44Z")
Be warned. Out of pure curiosity, I started a thread late last year in same vein (boom boom!) on the particular consumption of ecstasy. It was deleted. (I have no particular objections with this Board policy. However, it was a little perplexing for this newcomer when I couldn’t find the thread again.) ---
**Author:** ![JaxBeachBoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@JaxBeachBoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JaxBeachBoy)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2002, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-heroin-injected-only/109795/13 "2002-05-19T15:54:13Z")
UM…I’m pretty sure they were bumping coke in Pulp Fiction…not heroin. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2002, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-heroin-injected-only/109795/14 "2002-05-19T15:58:34Z")
Back in the old days some people would “skin-pop” (inject under the skin, not in a vein), partly because they thought they were less likely to become addicted. I don’t know if this is still done. Peace, mangeorge ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_Bowe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df788c/32.png) [@Doug\_Bowe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_Bowe)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2002, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-heroin-injected-only/109795/15 "2002-05-19T17:14:33Z")
Consumer Reports put out a book about licit and illicit drugs in the 70’s. They pulled it later. Basically they agreed with Reeder and labboy. The purity is the thing in question. By the time the stuff gets here it’s been stepped on so much it needs to get injected to cause a high. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Griffin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@The\_Griffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Griffin)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2002, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-heroin-injected-only/109795/16 "2002-05-19T17:19:40Z")
Only really injected when the addict doesnt want to waste any. Otherwise they will chase it cos it’s a lot safer. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2002, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-heroin-injected-only/109795/17 "2002-05-19T18:13:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by JaxBeachBoy \* > \*\*UM…I’m pretty sure they were bumping coke in Pulp Fiction…not heroin. \*\* Eh, no. The character played by John Travolta had herioin, most definitely. Then Mia Wallace found it in his jacket while he was in the bathroom and snorted it thinking it was coke. Then he had to race her to his dealer’s house where they gave her an adrenaline injection to the heart. ---
**Author:** ![Critical1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Critical1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Critical1)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2002, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-heroin-injected-only/109795/18 "2002-05-19T18:30:00Z")
she thought it was coke cause it wasnt in the balloon, it was just in a baggy. ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2002, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-heroin-injected-only/109795/19 "2002-05-19T19:11:03Z")
**Joey P** , please refrain from specific instructions on how to use a controlled dangerous substance. Thank you. More broadly, the General Question here has been answered, so I’m going to close the thread.