you really think IVing is SAFER than snoring dope? are we just talking dope or we talking about any opiate? safer to SNORT than to IV? first time I heard this.
Nonsense!
IV is a LOT safer when you are using quality gear; obviously Rx vials of heroin hydrochloride powder for reconstitution is safest of all, but there are several methods, some described on this very site, of purifying the kind of adulterated stuff you find 'on the streets' which are perhaps a bit time-consuming but hey, you're talking about SAFETY here. Even if one were to get a yield of only 15-20% of diacetylmorphine from some of the crap you buy in baggies, the amount required for a hit is reduced so much that 20mg/mL can be enough to fly. In some people that might even be too much!
The street heroin which we get here and I suspect is available almost anywhere in the US as well, is Afghani or Pakistani diacetylmorphine BASE (aka#3, brown, 'smoking heroin' etc) which may be made into a salt suitable for injection by addition of an acid to the rather insoluble-in-water base, citric acid being the most used, heated gently the mixture will clear to an amber to darker brown colour - the problem being that any soluble 'cut' is also included in the liquid to be injected - so heroin citrate is a lot more commonly used than the pharmaceutical prescription hydrochloride, unless you purify it using one of the methods published using HCl.
This base being non-water-soluble, is not effective when snorted and the crap that it is cut with is something you more than likely do NOT want up your hooter! (Most will be caffeine and d-mannitol, relatively inert but who really knows what noxious stuff can be added by unscrupulous greedy middlemen?!)
Smoking the base is often touted by Health authorities as the safest method, after all, that is what the #3 is made for, but look at the distilled and very strong residue which collects on your foil tooter and think of what is ending up in your lungs!
I am afraid that from this point my post was not auto-saved, so I will improvise the finish.
Heroin from the street having been purified using the methods published elsewhere in BLUELIGHT and in other places is benign, does no damage to the body when injected in a sterile environment using sterile equipment, you do NOT want to be injecting the watercsoluble crap it is often mixed with so making Afghan base into heroin citrate isn't exactly the best way, 20mg/mL is way enough to fly, so even purifying with a yield of 15-20% is well worth the time and work involved, though there is no substitute for prescribed vials of powder for reconstitution hydrochloride, and snorting lets whatever possibly noxious substances the greed of organised crime's bulking agents contain (though mostly caffeine and d-mannitol, pretty inert) enter the system through the mucosa, the base is not water soluble and therefore is a waste when snorted - you MUST only insufflate a purified or Rx preparation - and smoking will coat your lungs with heroin as well as God knows what, even if the method is safer insofar as overdosing is concerned, control of intake and the amount of intoxication desired is concerned...
I must conclude that intravenous injection of diacetylmorphine hydrochloride as pure and clean as possible in a sterile environment is by quite a long way the safest method of using.
And this is from somebody who has been using opiates and opioids since 1972 and 'street' gear since 1976. Maybe the fact my father was a doctor and my mother a nurse has always made me very careful about my drug usage and my insistence on safety at all times has a lot to do with my attitudes but I am talking absolute FACT here and would certainly never have made this comment were I not 100% certain of my conclusion.
It is a thankless task explaining harm reduction to the last couple of generations, who are the filthiest and most cavalier I have ever encountered during my long association with using opioid drugs as my social relaxant of choice - and they are also a lot safer than the legal drugs which are sold everywhere in the western world, alcohol and tobacco.
Please take heed as I have seen a couple of documentaries about the US heroin scene recently which disgusted me, it is almost as bad as it is here in Scotland and IV use seems to be MORE prevalent than smoking or snorting there, whilst the majority of recreational users here are smokers.
One final thing, Mexican heroin made using GAA in place of acetic anhydride, as well as producing a substance which has a greater proportion of 3-MAM than the desirable 6-MAM in the eventual 3,6-diacetyl product is also recommended to be purified before injection, though my impression is that some of that dreadful tarry, vinegar-stinking stuff, while excellent smoking material, is, or can be, extremely potent when injected, so beware. Perhaps the high price of heroin in the US compared with Europe has something to do with this greater purity of the import quality goods which are common in the Southern States like NM, AZ and TX. It is double or more the price of Europe, gram for gram.
