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Is he using Cocaine? what is up with the safety pins?

mariesmart

Greenlighter
Joined
Jul 27, 2010
Messages
6
Hi All,

I need heeeelllpppp! I just had a baby with my bf a few months ago and am concerned....

I'll try not to bore you with a mini novel and just list the facts:

1. My bf has been a heavy weed smoker for at least 15 years (we have been together for 5)

2. I found a very tinyl empty baggy (as small as your pinky nail) with a white substance in our new apt and gently had a talk with him asking him if he was using crack and mixing it with his weed or using it alone...he said "no" and blamed it on the old tenants.

3. He ALWAYS walks around with these huge safety pins on his clothing, is sterilizing one in alcohol as I type, and once when I came home early I found it on the bathroom sink with a bloody tissue (he wasn't there so I just left the apt before he came back)

4. He uses dristan ALL the time, and blames it on the allergies...(yearlong allergies?)

5. Somewhat minor things make him sweat profusely however...it is never accompanied by any type of jittery behavior

He works the nightshift so if he is using, it is occuring then or when he comes home and goes out to smoke weed.

Q's
What is up with the safety pins? There is no way to use them with drugs right?
Is it possible he is using cocaine or crack?

This is really embarrassing but I need help. Thanks!
 
No idea what the safety pins are for. If his pupils look big, and he is acting weird, he may be on coke.... I am not one to rat ppl out, but since you have a kid together I'll tell you the "signs".... My brother uses coke and his symptoms are:
sweating a lot
clearing his throat b4 talking since his throat is numb
paranoia
anti-social
 
^
I'll agree with what he said, along with the pupils.

The only thing I'll add is that that is a very small bag and I may suspect meth before crack.
But I know more about coke than crack so I'll shut up!
 
Thanks Tommy! Honestly if it were just me I would leave it alone. I absolutely LOVE him and want to stay with him but since I'm a mom now I have to put our baby before my feelings and see what is really going on....even if it's not what I want to do...

I guess I am just jumping to conclusions b/c based on what you stated it looks as if he may not be using. I'll wait for the other replies.
 
I used to smoke heroin on paper clips, but if they are clean then that may not be the case.

I would heat one clip till red-hot and have gummy piece of heroin "black tar" on another clip. From here I would free base it with a straw.

That is the only use I would know of for clips, but this is not exactly what your explaining, because the clips would have a black residue.. Heroin also comes in white powder, but it's not sticky.
 
My brother is a heavy coke user (sad face), and when he uses he acts so different...

That was the main basis for my info that I posted before. The "symptoms" that I listed are what I have noticed, along with what his other friends have noticed he acts like while on cocaine.

Soooo, make out with him, and if your mouth get numb then call him ouit!
 
Signs are similar b/w substances but there is also individual reactions...different people might react differently to same drug.

Why don't u ask him what they safety pins are for? Have you? What did he say?

yeah, that is a tiny bag. I've actually never seen one that small. And coke usually comes in bags bigger than that. But it might have been just that one time he had a bag that tiny. A piece of crack can fit in a bag that tiny. Searching on google came up with something about some girl's bf having a crack addiction and using safety pins, but how I have no idea. I have seen crack once and it was a little ball the size of a corn seed, so that would definitely be a fit for something to go in the little bag. I would personally suspect crack before cocaine or meth. But meth also doesn't need a lot of space, so it could also go in that little baggie.

All 3 substances would have similar effects, since they are all stimulants. Dilated pupils, lots of energy. Runny nose with coke snorting, red nose. Anti social for all. Acting really on edge, mean, paranoid.

Does he work? Do you have any look into his finances? How he is spending money? Is there money that is unaccounted for? How much?

Something I would personally do with my SO but I am sure many would be opposed to is look through his wallet and pants in great detail. I am not advocating this, it should be done as a last case scenario, but if I am sharing my life w/ someone and they are being untruthful to me, I need to know and I can not stop myself. If he is using, he has a spot where he keeps it. It usually is very well hidden in his wallet or his pants, like in the little pocket or somewhere where you can barely find it in the wallet. He also has hiding spots throughout the house like behind the screens of speakers, places where you would normally never look. It depends on the house and your SO, I can somehow always find where mine is hiding if he is using. I never really had to do it w/ SO as he always told me when he was using since I am also a user, but I usually used this method to find his drugs so I can use them when he used to ration them out to me.

He probably thinks you are naive and will believe him that he is not using when you know that he is (then again he might not be using...I can't be sure obviously). Not very nice. Do you know why he won't tell you? What would you do if he told you that he is using? Is he afraid of your reaction? Why is he afraid of being honest with you. I see these kind of situations sometimes here on BL, where the men is using and he lies straight to the wife's face that he is not using. Why won't he just be honest? Does he just want you to leave him alone so that he can continue using? And if he told you would automatically make him stop? Do you pay the bills and are you the breadwinner of the family? I am just wondering what motivates him to lie to you about using when you guys should be partners? Would you throw him out if you knew he was using?

Sorry, so many questions. I need to know more.

Don't jump into any conclusions before you know more. Don't accuse him of using, but more like try to get him to be honest. Tell him that you only want to help and that if he told you would stay with him and work through it. Don't accuse him of anything until you have solid proof and even then you guys are partners with a child so make him feel like you will be on his side and will help him get through it.
 
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Thanks Sir. Actually my bff's brother used to be a dealer and told me it was a crack bag as well so you are not too far off.

Blackta, I just looked at the clip and it is so freaking rusty (in the alcohol) that I can't tell if it had black residue on it or not but thanks for the input

Tommy, sorry to hear about your brother... but thank you for the help.

Ziggy...sooo much to cover. Hold on I am getting it together...and THANK YOU!
 
I use to get my crack inside of those very small ziplock drug baggies.
 
Small baggy, white residue. I wish you had a pic for me to check out but that would be rather incriminating, wouldn't it?

Anyway, the tissue with blood was most likely from a bloody nose resulting from snorting coke. As for the safety pins, sometimes crack can be rock-fucking-hard after it gets cooked. Especially using one method which I won't go into details due to the rules. Anyway, that is beside the point. The safety pin is an easy way to split a smaller rock in half (usually about .2 in size or $<snip> piece) since it can be a fucking bitch to do so with your bare hands (especially if you have no nails from being geeked all the time)

He probably uses both coke and crack. I am 99% sure from what you described because I have seen it all in the past. Dealers don't always have both. Shit sells super quick. I hope this helped and good luck with your situation.
 
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Also safety pins can be used as a push rod to push the chore boy down a crack pipe...
 
Ziggy,

Ok like I mentioned earlier it seems as if it was a crack bag and not coke. My bff's brother is 100% sure and you guys are saying the same thing.

Regarding the dilated pupils...I know this sounds stupid but his iris is so freaking dark that I have no idea how I can tell if his pupils are dilated or not. The one time I did notice something strange with his eyes he wouldn't make eye contact with me and then when he did his eyes were wandering all over the place. It was the weirdest thing but I chalked it up to him being high (on weed) and left it alone. Whatever is going on definitely occurs at night after he comes in from work. He goes out to his car for about 2 hours or so and then comes upstairs, watches tv and goes to sleep in the living room (oh, by the way that's where he prefers to sleep for the last year or so...but that is another story..) I assumed he was going outside to smoke weed only but I could be wrong...He is extremely anti social and distant especially after I asked him if he was using but I guess that would make since.

He does not have lots of energy...the exact opposite. As I mentioned he smokes weed which makes looking out for things that much harder b/c I wonder if he smokes weed afterwards to come down or if that is even possible...

He is not paranoid but edgy at times and can get very mean...but again after I confronted him things have changed in our relationship a lot. Not sure if it's because he knows I know or if it's b/c he's offended I would think that.

Yes he works and has held the same job for over 10 years which also throughs me off b/c if he is indeed using he is still VERY functional! He keeps his finances a secret and NEVER talks about money. He says it makes him uncomfortable. I have seen his pay stubs and know that he is bringing home way too much to always cry broke the way he does. I handle the bills and he should have at least $800 left after everything is paid. He is either stashing it (which I am completely cool with) or wasting it.

Regarding his stash spot..I know he has one but I can't find it! I am starting to think that it is in the car somewhere...

He does think that I am naive and sadly enough I am. He was totally not my speed when we first met but opposites attract right? We were both very clear on what we would and would not tolerate in a relationship and for me it was drug use. This is how naive I was Ziggy, he told me he only smokes cigs and I believed him not knowing that his fingertips looked like that b/c he smoked blunts and would put it out with his fingers, lol. My previous bf's didn't smoke weed so I didn't know what I was looking at, smh.

Regarding the last part. We are both the breadwinners. We split everything 50/50 although we both make enough to take care of all of the bills on our own. No, I wouldn't through him out but I would want him to stop. I would be with him every step of the way and even told him that. He insisted he was not using. Regarding the honesty thing...he is a sneaky person...plain and simple. Even my mehanic (who is a good family friend) met him for the first time a few weeks ago and told me that he gets a sneaky vibe from him. Everyones first impression is the same...like he is hiding something. I am smh as I type b/c I am wondering what did I get myself into...with all of tha being said, he is a good man which makes this that much harder :-(
 
well if you found a bloody tissue thats no sign for drug use, but you found a little tiny baggy with white stuff on the bottom and he says it was the people from before well obviously thats a lie and if hes sterilizing a safety pin with alcohol then i would bet a good 20 bucks on the fact some drug is being used and its not weed.
check his arms for needle injections and between his toes, infact just look every were he has a vein.
id be careful with him around a baby i dont think he would do anything but a few of speed/crack/meth/cocaine users get mega paranoid about whatever, might think the baby is the antichrist or some crazy shit, lol just saw a episode like that on intervention. but thats unlikely to happen. and be careful when having sex with a IV user god knows what STDs he may of contracted from shared needle use. that is if hes IVing i only assume that because of the bloody tissue but it could just be a bloody nose or something. the safety pin thing is weird tho, the only thing that i could think of is that hes trying to find a good vein and poking it to see if its injectable or something i dont know tho ive never IVed, im just speculating. drug users will lie to anyone about anything hell theyll lie even when they know theyve been caught thats something i do know about. Good luck and be careful. I really dont think theirs anything wrong with using anydrug except crack, meth and speed but its a personal thing. anyway I hope everything works out and he wisens up since he has a kid and being addicted to something takes a big cut out of your finances. also why would he need to steralize a safety pin after hes brokin up some crack? dosent make any sense
 
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Paul I agree with you 100%. Although I don't like the weed thing (I'm one of the few that doesn't like the smell, go figure, lol.) I don't bust his chops about it, just do it away form me....but crack...now you're pushing it especially when you know I am not with that and we have a child. It's not as if I am suddenly turning this way I have ALWAYS felt like this and he knew that.
I was thinking about his feet as well. I have checked everywhere else and he ALWAYS keeps them covered! I mean this man comes out of the bathroom after taking a shower adn his freaking socks are on, I mean come on. Are your feet that bad, lol! Actually they are pretty bad but still, he Never has them out. In 5 years I can count 3 times and they were all when we were showering. We don't have sex anymore...again that's another story...but if we ever do again I will be sure to be careful just in case. Thanks for all of the advice.
 
Thank you Georgie

Mindphulx, I am starting to think it is coke and crack too. As I said I had an ex dealer confirm it was a crack bag but some of the other signs also make me think he may do coke and after reading your post I see you think it's both too. I actually do still have the bag and could take a pic but I don't know if that would be violating any rules or anything like that. Besides, it would just be more conformation on what I already know :-( Thanks.
 
IMO and everyone I knows as well..the feet is the last place a junkie wants to shoot up in. Junkies only shoot in their toes and feet because their arm, hand, shoulder, leg veins are already too fucked up. There's really low circulation in the feet thus lowering the rush. Also it fucking hurts. Besides I don't see any evidence of IV use by your post so IDK why Paul even brought it up.

Post the pic, it's not violating any rule to my knowledge.
 
People often have an image in their head of addicts living in gutters, prostituting, etc however 90%+ of addicts/drug users still have jobs and more or less 'function'. Often the job is the *last* thing the addict loses just due to basic economics and needing income to support their habit... So him working doesn't really say much either way.

Also, be careful that you view things objectively. Oftentimes (especially in relationships) people take fears or insecurities and instead of twisting theories to fit the facts, twist the facts to fit their theories.

I don't think this is really suited for the OD forum so I'm going to try it in 'the dark side' and see how it does over there.

Take care, marie.


--->TDS

EDIT:

Georgie25 said:
IMO and everyone I knows as well..the feet is the last place a junkie wants to shoot up in. Junkies only shoot in their toes and feet because their arm, hand, shoulder, leg veins are already too fucked up. There's really low circulation in the feet thus lowering the rush. Also it fucking hurts. Besides I don't see any evidence of IV use by your post so IDK why Paul even brought it up. Post the pic, it's not violating any rule to my knowledge.

Pauli, I think you should turn off 'Intervention' and use BL as your resource for understanding drugs and addiction. There are lots of myths out there like the prevalence of between-the-toe shooting, etc. Spot on, georgie.

Also, its not breaking any rules to post that pic.
 
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I had a GF who didnt like me smoking weed and I didnt quit because I was too dumb or high to care but it was probably both. it was understandable what she wanted since it does change your whole personality sometimes good and other times bad im guessing its bad in his case as it was mine. anyway if you do kick him out of your life it would hopefully be a good wake up call for him. but hell you would think having a baby would. that sure is weird about the no sex thing. i just dont understand how people still buy weed and other illegal drugs when they have a kid. it is hard if you have an addiction i was addicted to opiates and now im on suboxone neither of them are good but atleast suboxone is legal. hell if he gets busted with anything that can lead trouble with the your child child welfare services could very well take your kid away. you think that would make him stop right then and there.
 
Oh i dont use intervention for my resource. My knowledge is mostly focused on opiods. and yes yes their are functional addicts with jobs and they have a good life and all that. people can be safe with IV'ing if they take the right steps. and no not everyone knows that shooting between the toes is the wrong way to IV IMO i am not a IV user so why would I know that but it is intresting to learn. 90% of addicts are functional? lol 8.5 percent of the population has a drug addiction but for a true drug addiction the number gets down to 3.1 million. in 2007 230,000 drug addicts were incarcerated and thats not counting the number in treatment centers. you do the math im to tired. and yes many people do function normally with an addiction but if 90%+ are functional then their shouldnt be over 10% of the addiction population in prison or treatment. so only 301000 should be in prisons or treatment centers. but maybe your right and im wrong I do truly hope im wrong, because if someone can smoke crack every 3 hours and go to their job of being a bus driver than I wouldnt worry about getting killed or a pcp addict thats a pilot. aslong as they can function it should be all good.
 
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^
I'll agree with what he said, along with the pupils.

The only thing I'll add is that that is a very small bag and I may suspect meth before crack.
But I know more about coke than crack so I'll shut up!

I think that would depend on what region she's in.

The northeast? Not meth.


I've never seen those small bags used for anything else than crack.

Safety pin? Not sure exactly, but I know I've used a paper clip to try and scrape every bit of white out of those little bags. Some always gets caught where the bags seal together. A safety pin would work better for that than a paper clip because of the thinner end.

I'd imagine it could be used for something with the pipe/stem as well,


These are all just guesses though. I mean you could use a safety pin for a lot of things. There are paper clips around my room that are staightened out with just one side bent. I used to use them to mix the bowl up between hits with my old vapor brothers vaporizer. Who the hell would guess that?


Do you suspect he's smoking crack though or snorting cocaine? Is his nose stuffed up a lot? Kind of weird question, but did you ever notice that if he blew his nose in a tissue if any blood would come out? I'm not talking like a nosebleed, just like a bit of red in there. I started using coke a lot last fall and after I quit I still had some blood coming out like that for (6?) weeks afterwards. It was worse at first, but it still was coming out for a while. How about straws that have been cut into smaller pieces (for snorting) or pen caps or rolled up bills?

You ever notice small pipes (that aren't for weed) or glass tubes? Maybe some bronze or burnt metal strips? I know with those little baggies, lots of times the tops would rip off or small bits of the back would break off and get lost in the shuffle. I'd find small pink or yellow strips of bag in the days afterwards.

It can be hard to narrow down the effects when dealing with a person, especially if they're using multiple substances. I'd keep an eye out for more physical evidence.
 
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