if you guys are saying it's dumb to use a spoon, then what are you suppose to use?
I've always used a spoon in the 10 yrs that i've done H.Or bottom of a soda can. To be honest I was never sterile about anything. Sometimes if at a house I would wash my hands and injection site and maybe wash the spoon with dish soap. But I've never had a problem. I have gotten "cotton fever" tho a few times.
And when sucking up the solution in a spoon your needle should never be touching the spoon so I don't know why the poster was saying that the needle scratches the spoon.
Also if you're in the states where do you obtain those little cookers that look like little measuring cups?
-note* this is more for diacetylmorphine in the form of a salt (heroin #4) like what is found primarily through out the USA (powder heroin that is found primarily on the East Coast to Chicago and Black tar heroin found from places like TN, TX, to CA or WA). The UK sees most often diacetylmorphine freebase w/ or w/o additives that help when using smoking as their ROA like caffeine.
There are plenty of other containers that can be users than a spoon which has a lot of downsides. Anything from a shot glass, a 'cooker' from a needle exchange, to a medicine bottle. Heating the solution is not needed when the heroin is in it's salt form as heroin salts (specifically heroin hcl) are VERY water soluble. Yes it is easier with powdered heroin from the east coast to prep with out heating, but it can be done with Black Tar Heroin even if may people try to refute this. To prep with out head for BTH, one must split the BTH into tiny tiny pieces so you maximize the surface area, place in a container like a shot glass with the needed quantity of water, and stir for a few mins till your solution has just little tiny specks of left over cuts from the black tar which you don't want to dissolve (heating will dissolve all this shit). You can then just throw your cotton in, filter it, make sure their is no cuts flying around in the syringe and refilter if needed (a micron filter will of course be the best way to do this, but cotton filtering can work though not as well). Since the heroin in tar is in the salt form it is very water soluble like previously discussed, so if you cut your tar up into little pieces and agitation, it will rapidly dissolve into solution with out any heat being needed.
Just because you never had any problem with your non-sterile practices doesn't mean what your doing is anywhere near safe, nor should be thought to be ok by those who frequent this board (which is a HARM REDUCTION BOARD). If you want to continue to be unsafe with your practices its your life, but don't go telling people that these precautions are silly just because you manage to avoid any health concerns.
Spoons are often pulled out of drawers/been previously used for eating, are some times not handled carefully/accidently scratched by the needle with out realizing it, etc., so there usually are little cracks on spoons. Even freshly made spoons still have some little craves that you can't see with your eye that can be potentially a feeding ground for bacteria. Soda cans especially have these little craves, and generally shouldn't ever be used.
People seem to use spoons most often for a few reasons. One they see it on TV, movies, youtube, hear about it from a senior junkie, etc. Two People also think you must always heat your solution so the spoon makes some sense in it's use, though like discussed you really don't need to heat your solution, so using this as an excuse for using a spoon is dumb. A spoon can carry bacteria easy like discussed, it can also spill easy which should be a concern to a junkie. Its a sad sight to see a spoon get tipped over and solution fall out. There are just better options if you live in the USA and get heroin #4
