Captain.Heroin
Bluelight Crew
We don't give anyone anything but advice.I would agree with you if Bluelight existed to give everyone what they wanted. It doesn't.
We're a harm reduction forum, not a "don't do drugs!"/DARE forum. So if someone asks "How do I do this?" we tend to tell them, even if a lot of precautions and warnings precede the instructions.
We've all encouraged the OP to take a break, to switch ROA's, and to even consider ORT. Her choice is hers, not ours. Whether I say "do or do not inject", odds are, she will still be injecting.Maybe this is just the difference of opinion between someone who doesn't IV and someone who does daily, but it seems like its an awful stretch of "harm reduction" to encourage people to continue to inject when they've collapsed all of their previously usable veins in a period of less than two years. Its only going to lead directly to more collapsed veins and more harm, at least that's how I see it.
Even if 1000 people all post "don't do it! please stop!" do you think she's going to?
Probably not.
No one has told her "yes it is OK and acceptable, and a good idea to keep doing what you're doing". We've all given her alternatives to IV BTH, she obviously wants to IV BTH, she's even considering IMing it. IM BTH is not the safest route.
If you tell people "stop using" or "don't do drugs!" they'll end up doing things like IMing BTH. That's not harm reduction. That's just telling someone to go fuck themselves because you don't want to help them.
If you don't know how to help them, that's also acceptable to say, and to put in "maybe try Suboxone or methadone, possibly switch to smoking or plugging?" - that's OK.
Telling people "you're going to die", etc, is just a scare tactic. And it isn't scaring anyone who actually injects.
Yes but its not our decision if she is going to continue to IV.
If she tells us she will continue despite what we say, it IS harm reduction to tell her how to do so with the least amount of risk . . .
Exactly.
We've stickied the Case Studies thread, and we have a great IV Complications Mega Thread which goes over the relative risks and possible mistakes people may or may not encounter when injecting.
We also have...
Addicted and need help?
Micron Filtering Mega Thread and FAQ
Community Project - Tapering Plans
Bluelight has a lot of resources dedicated to help people end drug addictions, and they'll always be there, especially for people like the OP.
But what people don't realize, especially about alcohol, tobacco, or heroin users: the relapse rate is somewhere around 75%. This means only 1 in 4 people who even tries to quit will actually stay clean by the 9 months mark.
For the 3 in 4 who will keep using, this is why we have threads like this one.
Some people are content with harming themselves. This isn't OK by any means, but if they'll continue to harm themselves anyways, it's in our best interest (and obviously theirs as well) to minimize the harm being done.
