Blasting Base????

Was wondering if any one knows the long/short terms effects from injecting base, and any other info you have to offer? (Besides saying dont do it!!)
Would like some comments from people who have had experience...
Cheers

try it. the effects seem obvious enough to me.

1. High risk of developing a massive addiction.
2. Without rigorous hygiene you risk introducing any number of impurities directly into your blood. Remember the base you buy may be cut many times since it was made and some impurities may circumvent your filtration, opening you up to the risk of systemic venous/blood infection. This is very dangerous and without treatment, fatal.
3. Damaged/collapsed veins.
4. Loss of occupation/friends etc. due to track marks and bruising caused by #3.
5. Possibility of psychotic episodes ('amphetamine psychosis') resulting from long term sleep deprivation and high-level amphetamine use.
6. Possible Long Term Effects (from Erowid): fatal kidney and lung disorders, possible brain damage, permanent psychological problems, lowered resistance to illnesses, liver damage, stroke.
7. And then... when you stop... TA-DA! Welcome to WITHDRAWAL. Fatigue; long, disturbed periods of sleep; irritability; intense hunger, and moderate to severe depression. Severity of withdrawal symptoms is concomitant with the duration and dose level of meth use. Expect craving, exhaustion, depression, mental confusion, restlessness and insomnia, deep or disturbed sleep lasting up to 48 hours, extreme hunger, psychotic reaction, anxiety reactions.
Anything else you want to know? I assumed you were asking about the negative effects. On the other side of the coin I suppose, you have the benefit of having boundless energy for days on end and bursts of ridiculous euphoria when you actually do shoot up.
BigTrancer

Well summed up BT. I might also add, that if you are still keen, unless you know all your sources i.e. cook > cut > you, I'd also check pH. Other forms of administration are somewhat more forgiving in this regard.
In other words, baking soda may sting your nose if you sniff it, make you burp if you swallow it, but could kill you if you boot it!

What's base???I assume you mean freebase meth???
If your smart enough to make meth,you should be smart enough to inject it!!!!
In fact why not just crystallize your freebase??

Short term effects: nice rush, lots of energy, craving for more after a short period of time
Short/long: What BT said. Even after a single weekend of bingeing you can feel completely wrecked. Craving for the drug and the method of ingestion. The act of injecting can be very addictive.
Also the stigma there is with needles. So much for harm minimisation when nobody (outside BL) wants to talk to you about it. Of couse, it's fine if it's someone they don't know.

Can I just stress the importance of having pure substances... if you're not buying one level from the lab at most (better to get it straight from the cook if possible) you're running a much larger risk of impurities... and when injecting you're by-passing the bodies natural filter - the liver. Also remember that you only need a much smaller amount that you'd normally snort...
You might know all this already, but if you don't then it needs to be said...

akshEn74 Base (stupid term) is usually what refers to the concentrated sulphate or hydrochloride acid-salt of amphetamine, meth etc.
Freebase, like freebase cocaine or amphetamine, is the “raw form” produced before the sulphate etc. Being amines freebase forms are quite alkaline.
Base referring to street meth is not the alkaline freebase, but a supposedly concentrated form of an acid salt, usually the sulphate.
A substance may be prepared as the freebase, soluble in perhaps ether and other solvents. This property can facilitate the purification process and provides a medium to generate the salt. The salt is often insoluble in this medium and precipitates out.
You would NEVER inject freebase! You would almost certainly die, and quickly.
‘Injecting base’ I think is a stupid term. You have to dissolve it in water first anyway, which means by definition [street] it isn’t base any longer. So it’s the same as dissolving that which is cut with glucose, only the base is more concentrated, & obviously without the glucose.
I made the point about baking soda, because I’ve often heard it said that many dealers’ who buy conc. paste (base) and cut it, often use a small amount of baking soda in the cut. Some crazy reason concerning the mucous membranes I believe? Seems a pretty stupid practice as a tiny amount of moisture would cause it to react with the acid salt.
Freebase coke is often prepared from the hydrochloride salt in this very way. A bit of simple math and it is possible to get a close idea of the purity of the salt by liberating the freebase.
Obviously speed cut with any alkaline substance is not intended to be injected. My opinion is that cutting with anything alkaline is dangerous, but injecting something like speed is way more so, unless perhaps it is prescribed pharmaceutical grade -eh…no such thing anymore….
I’ve mentioned before that I have met some really old speed users who don’t seem to have fucked around too much by it, and yet have taken it for 30 years or more (though there’s no telling what their liver and kidneys may be like)
Without exception, all of these people have said they’ve never gotten into base. They are content with 3-1 to 5-1 cuts and most say they have a handle on their intake. They usually tell you the base is what fucks people up.
What’s the difference anyway between a point and a point with glucose, especially if the later can help prevent the compulsiveness / consequences of a full on habit?

Some people use substances such as bicarb soda or epsom salts to cut powders with because they sting the nose and don't have a characteristic sweet taste that would give away the cut nature of the powder.
BigTrancer

epsom is nice to whack though BT.
june 1996, after 2 years of addiction, that built from nowhere, without me realising...
lying on the floor of my employers office kicking and screaming, balling my eyes out...i'd become a junky... amphetamine had lead to heroin and i was using both very heavely. just be carefull...itll sneek up on you.
everything falls apart at once.

Phase_Dancer,I'm sorry if i gave you the wrong impression.
It's just i get so annoyed with people refering to pure,dirty,gummy etc as base.As im sure you know freebase methamphetamine is liquid a t room temprature.
Cheers
P.S Dont EVER stop posting Phase,you really do know your shit

akshEn74, sorry if I gave the wrong impression; didn't mean to imply at all that you were stupid.
Thanks for the comments. My writing with passion is one thing but reading it properly, and correcting my poor grammar prior to posting is another, so always flame me on anything that reads strangely!
As far as concentrate meth goes, having never made it (and never going to) I can only comment on what has been shown to me. Most I admit has looked like rubbish (not pure) but on occasion I believe I have seen the real thing, a rather viscous clear liquid.
Last year’s Illicit Drugs Reporting System stated that much speed seized in Queensland was of very high purity. One guy involved in the program said he’d been in the police analytical lab and was shown what the chemist described as pure, almost pharmaceutical grade meth, produced in a backyard lab. So it can be done.
A spokesperson from a needle exchange group said they have heard of bad cooks bringing the pH of the acid crystal up with caustic soda! (due I imagine to poor crystallization technique & excess sulphuric acid). Enjoy your sodium sulphate, and hope like hell the alkali isn’t in excess and that it all reacts! Perhaps this is why some also add phosphoric or hypo to the final product. [mental picture - never ending blind titration]
Its stories like these that make me very wary of the safety of injecting speed. You might say smack could be just as dirty. True, but the synthesis process is undoubtedly overseen by someone with knowledge of the chemistry involved. And as most heroin is intended for injecting (outside of Tailand Burma etc.) I would imagine it unlikely it would be cut with anything alkaline.
Am I being a bit naive here?
You’ve heard about Iodine in the final product. I was once given a line, which upon having thought I’d just snorted an iodine salt. Fuck it was horrid. What would continuous exposure to such levels of iodine do to hormone regulation and thyroid / pituitary function?
Babydoc, any anecdotes or reports on this?
Some time ago my girl and I had an extended period of taking some shit whizz. I came out of it with health problems (can’t say for sure it was related) but my girl developed rather serious health problems, related to thyroid / pituitary function. More worrying were her levels of IgM, and alkaline phosphatase. Apart from pregnancy and bone healing, high levels of the later usually only occur when serious health problems are present (cancer etc.). Monoclonal tests of the immunoglobulin confirmed there was no cancer, but the condition lasted months after ceasing using, with her usually high energy levels diminished to practically nothing. Blood tests fluctuated for ~ 6 months. We only snorted or drank it.
This doesn’t imply anything I know, but all the same it made us think. Our philosophy of a little but not a lot had been thrown out the window during this period. Looking back it’s astonishing. I would hate to imagine where we’d be now if we’d ever started booting it.
Having a tendency to be compulsive (fuck - better not admit that - I think it’s a condition these days) I have to be thankful I am scared of needles. Like many of you, I’ve seen mates over the years die or fall by the way-side from smack and intravenous speed use. Please listen to those who have returned. eddi spgeddi describes it well. And leave pinging to those with incredible amounts of self discipline.

Interesting topic...
Just want to add a few things...
Blasting base will increase all the effects (both the good ones and the bad ones). The addiction problems noted by BT can happen with injecting base, but these problems can also happen from eating/snorting, as well.
As with all things, it comes down to the individual. However, if your injecting all the time, the problems from the addiction will be greater than if you were eating all the time. But just don't think that if you eat it/snort it you won't have problems with addiction etc.
There is also the risk of overdose if you inject it. This risk is also present if you eat/snort it, although you might have the advantage of spewing some of it up, and a generally slower come-on. A mild overdose on base would leave you very sick (vomiting) and uncontrollably shaking. It can also make people aggressive and difficult to reason with. Extended periods of time on base (whether you eat it, snort it or inject it) can lead to psychosis.
We've heard of many suicide attempts, and some carried through, as a result of base, as well as really frightening psychotic reations.
Again, if you inject it, these probelms will be worse, but eating/snorting definately does not free you up from all of the probelms associated with base.
A couple of risks unique to injecting are:
Blood borne infections (especially Hep C - Wash your hands before and after injecting, and don't share anything!!! including water, swabs, filters, torniquet...Hep C can be transmitted from minute partilces of blood invisible to the naked eye)
Infection/Vein Problems: Don't inject below the knee, or into hands...These tiny veins can easily block up, or burst. If you can't find a decent vein in your arm, have a warm shower and try again. If you get any wierd abscesses, contact your local drug user group (every state has one I think) for a friendly doctor. Don't be scared to ask for help, it could cost you a limb. To reduce bruising, make sure you keep very still while injecting. A lot of bruising comes from a needle that gets wobbled around inside the vein. Also be aware that the Turumo needles (used in many Needle and Syringe Programs) can barb very easily, especially when you're mixing up. The tip of the syringe gets bent very slightly (barbed) and can catch on the vein as your pull out. To reduce bruising, apply ice to the injecting site straight after you've shot up. But, Be Blood Aware! Keep your eyes open for any possible contamination from other people's blood. If you use ice, don't let anyone else use it, and wash your hands with warm water and soap afterwards.
[ 22 February 2002: Message edited by: hardup ]

Thanks hardup for outlining correct injecting procedures. Good to see this area of drug use responded to by those who know. Addiction is addiction irrespective of the route of administration. Concentrate can only make getting there easier.
Can I also add that blood borne diseases can be potentially transmitted via sharing the same straw, note etc. when snorting.
I know of 2 cases of staph. infection where it was highly suspected the cause was sharing implements while snorting coke. It’s not hard to see why. An anesthetised nose of an anxious participant can quite easily be poked by the sharp edge of a rolled note. Those delicate mucous membranes are very close to capillaries - ala blood on the note.
One wonders also about sharing joints / bongs and Hep C. Take a bunch of people that are on E or whizz, and all have been chewing the insides of their mouth. Is it not possible for there to be a fluids exchange here?

Definitely!