No, this isn't the smartest thing to do, your veins are not going to like this.
But, I think it's a little hypocritical to go condemning IV alcohol, on the principle that it's bad for your body and there are other alternatives, when not many people here condemn cannabis smoking on the same principle.
Smoking cannabis isn't great for the lungs either, and you can eat it, but I don't see too many threads or posts saying "You're a fool for smoking cannabis, why don't you just eat it", or "You know that burning sensation when you smoke weed? That's your lungs being damaged, its wreaking havoc on them, don't do it, it's fucking pointless, just eat it please."
I remember when someone posted about plugging cannabis, and people laughed at them, saying just eat it or smoke it. In the interest of harm reduction, anybody saying "just smoke it" surely should have gotten censured, but no one did (at least not to my memory). Yet plugging is far better on the body than smoking.
Now I think what's at work here is people not taking well to forms of drug use which are not widely accepted. Plugging cannabis is not widely practiced, so people laugh and encourage them to smoke it, because smoking is widely accepted, yet it's much more harmful. Mainlining ethanol isn't widely practiced, so people criticise it as well.
Hell, I don't see much criticism aimed at people talking up the virtues of ecstasy, yet that stuff is quite potentially neurotoxic. Why isn't praising ecstasy slammed on the grounds that it could potentially do your brain some harm? Injecting alcohol is also potentially damaging, but people go after the second and not the first.
I mean if you're going to condemn IVing alcohol basis of it's bad for your body then lets condemn dropping a couple of pills and dancing all night, which is also bad for your body. How healthy is grinding your teeth down and pushing your body past its sober exhaustion limits? My veins aren't going to enjoy being saturated in an organic solvent, but how does my heart feel about dancing for ten fucking hours?
If we're going to bang on about how bad doing certain drugs in certain ways is to your body, then be consistent and start criticising everything which is bad or potentially bad for the body, including those things which are widespread and socially acceptable.
I'd like to see the people criticising IV alcohol on the grounds that it's bad for the body to get real and start criticising dancing on pills. If you're criticising shooting alcohol on the grounds that there are safer alternatives, then I'd like to see you harassing cannabis smokers. It's plain hypocrisy not to.
Also to those people who are saying it will 100% definitely destroy your veins, could I see some evidence? Even if it was definitely going to collapse the vein, the OP might think it's worth it, I mean a collapsed vein isn't good, but it's not like he's definitely going to die from it.
Now if you don't make a habit out of this, and by your post it seems you just want to try this as a once off to see what it's like, then I don't think it's the worst thing you can do.
Google "intravenous alcohol" and the first site is an academic journal that mentions three addicts who injected alcohol. The first case was an alcoholic and diazepam addict who " . . . mentioned that he had been injecting alcohol over the previous 9 years. He injected mainly vodka, sherry or whisky with approximately a twice-monthly frequency."
The second case was alcohol, opioid and benzodiazepine dependent. "When questioned about intravenous injection of alcohol, he said that he had been using this method for 10 years until 1 year before admission. He injected mainly vodka with a frequency of four times per week."
The third case was an alcohol and opioid addict who ". . . said that he had injected various alcoholic beverages, including beer, approximately once a week." He ". . . admitted having used this method over a period of 3 years."
All three mentioned that the only downside was a burning sensation at the site of injection. The article doesn't mention it, and maybe the three cases above got lucky, but I suspect that with frequent enough use, collapsed veins would result; ethanol isn't particularly kind to cell membranes.
Google "intravenous ethanol" and you'll get a whole bunch of scientific studies involving IV ethanol. I could only get the abstracts so I can't say how much ethanol was given, but I assume it wouldn't be as much as you planning to take. Also IV ethanol seems to be used in the treatment of ethylene glycol (anti-freeze) poisoning, again, they would probably inject it over a longer period of time than you're planning.
So with the aid of a little google research you can establish that IV ethanol isn't that uncommon, and while it definitely isn't the healthiest route of administration, it doesn't seem to cause instant death like some of the people here make it out.
Now I understand the appeal, the come up would be under a minute, versus 5 to 10 minutes drinking on an empty stomach. Same rationale with cannabis, I want to get high now, so I'm going to smoke it as opposed to eating it. All three cases in the article I cited mentioned rapid onset of effects to be the main upside of shooting.
I doubt you'd get much of a "rush", but the come up would certainly be quite enjoyable. Even when I've drunk multiple shots of hard liquor on an empty stomach, it still takes about 5 minutes between first feeling it coming on and peak effects. I'd imagine that with IV, it'd take less than 30 seconds. It definitely should be pleasant.
The logistics are a bit tricky though, as your standard insulin syringe is going to hold at most a ml, which won't do much even if you're shooting everclear (96% ethanol).
You're going to need at least a 10ml syringe, which is about a fifth of a shot. If you've got access to everclear then 10cc (millilitres and cubic centimeters are identical) of that shit is equal to a little under a shot of regular 40% (80 proof) spirits.
If I was going to do this, I'd probably go for something like a 10cc or 20cc syringe, but I don't know how easy they are to come by (the internet?) as compared to the standard insulin syringes. I'd definitely use everclear so I wouldn't have to inject like 10 times (everclear is about two and a half times the potency of normal spirits).
I'd also inject quite slowly (like over a span of at least 15 seconds (although the faster you do it the quicker the come up)), so as to minimise the vein damage (I'm assuming a lower local concentration of ethanol in the veins equals less damage). The downside of this is the pain would get pretty intense I'd guess. If you have access to a local anaesthetic (cocaine if you've got any), maybe rub some down the vein (I don't know how much this would help though because it probably wouldn't penetrate down far enough).
If you don't have access to everclear, or can't find any fat syringes then you'd probably have to inject a couple of times. You'd definitely want to inject in different places so as to spread the damage, but the reality of repeated injections would negate a quick come up, which is the reason for this exercise in the first place. Maybe get your buddy to inject you at the same time but at a different site.
If you must do it without everclear, then your best bet would be vodka, because it would have the least impurities. Remember people, commercial alcohol is made with legal implications of having toxic impurities in it. The shit is meant to be drunk, meaning it's clean enough to consume by the oral route. I'm not saying that it's 100% safe to IV, but the makers of Grey Goose aren't like the local smack dealer who'll cut your dope with whatever shit in order to make a profit.
You can also rest easy knowing the shit you bang is pretty much guaranteed to be sterile. Microorganisms don't exactly thrive in 40% ethanol solutions.
Ideally you'd want to bang the equivalent of a least a shot, I'd go for two if I were doing it, but you'd probably not wanna push a whole lot more than that. Too little and you'd feel nothing, too much and you might OD/cause some brain damage, but I can't think of how this is much worse than people slamming down 5 shots in a row at the bar on an empty stomach, in terms of peak blood levels of ethanol.
There are other threads on how to shoot, so I won't go into it here, just make sure you know what you're doing by the time you've got the loaded syringe in your hand.
Obviously don't reuse or share needles, and if you don't have a lot of willpower I'd probably destroy the needle immediately after you've shot, so you won't be tempted to reuse it. Also make sure you don't have other needles lying around so you won't be tempted to shoot more.
Yeah, like you mentioned, definitely don't go shooting the amount you'd usually drink in a session, once you've shot, just kick back with a couple of beers and enjoy the knowledge of going where few people have gone before.
I don't want to encourage you to do this, but I'd be a hypocrite if I discouraged you and didn't discourage cannabis smokers.
If you do shoot, please tell us how it went.
