Dude, needle exchanges exist. Or if you can't get them from there buy them online.
The only time you should ever consider using a rig someone else has given you is if you know them and it's still in the packet, unsealed.
I would never, ever use a needle I didn't see come right out of a packet. No way in hell.
You really cannot hold yourself out as being any better or more sanitary than 'homeless junkies' if you took a needle out of the packet from someone to use with. I've been homeless and I never used a single dirty rig during my 6 months on the street. Not a single time. Barely even reused needles unless I was really scrapped for paraphenalia. But that was rare and I always used bleach and hot water in those situations.
Fuck me dude. If you keep doing stuff like this I actually recommend asking your doctor about PrEP, which is colloquially known as 'the gay drug' but is also widely prescribed to other at risk groups for HIV/AIDS such as IV drug users. It would act as a failsafe against some of your worse choices in where you source your using equipment and would protect you against infection 99% of the time. PEP is also an option which you can get from sexual health clinics or emergency departments the day after your potential exposure to the virus which you have to take for 30 days. PrEP you take continuously.
Just some well meaning advice here, one of the reasons I do take PrEP aside from sleeping with other men is on the one in a billion chance I somehow use a dirty rig.
If you are going to be an IV user who has something approaching a normal average lifespan that means you are required to do certain things in order to protect your health.
1. Always use clean needles.
2. Always use alcohol swabs on everything you touch, your injection site, and the needle you are injecting with plus the hand you use to find the vein.
3. Learn proper technique where you know how to form a vacuum with your grip and register in the vein immediately instead of going on a fishing expedition.
4. Learn technique so that you don't need to re-adjust your grip after you register, causing you to slip out and miss the shot.
5. Use cotton swabs on injection site post injection, rather than alcohol swabs (which increases bleeding).
6. Use proper correct filters for what you are using. Cotton swab small bits are fine in a pinch, but a proper filter is better.
7. Use sterile water every time you use and learn the order in which different water types should be used. This information is available online.
8. If you are not managing to hit, and you are messing up your veins, have an agreement with yourself that maybe a plan b in the form of plugging the solution is preferred to continuing. This also goes for if you have registered and gotten blood in the rig but haven't hit a shot soon after so the solution becomes unsterile.
9. Unless you are proficient, and plan your use meticulously, and have a supply of paraphernalia you can bring with you, avoid using in public places including public bathrooms where people may put you in a rush. If you can do it as fast as I can, fine. But if not, it's much better to avoid the stress entirely.
10. Rotate your injection sites and you absolutely must practice using both arms. This is non negotiable. If you are only willing to use one arm because you aren't willing to learn how to be proficient with the other one, your career as an IV user will end suddenly.
Lastly, if you have been repeatedly trying to successfully do it and failing miserably even though you have had plenty of chance to learn, it may be time to consider whether this is the right ROA for you. I've been an IV user for 7 years all up, but if you remove the combined months I didn't shoot up at all, the total would be closer to 1.5-2 years and within less than 1 I was able to shoot up more often than not, by 1.5 years I could get it first time 99% of the time and I never miss.
If you're going to use in the most dangerous way you possibly can, you need to do *everything* possible to at least be doing it as safely as possible. This does not include using mystery needles to inject. Not by a long shot.
