Dr. Feelgood a quick note
Hey
I noted that you wrote that you don't plan on doing IV heroin often. But since you have made the jump from snorting to IV, and I am assuming this is your first or one of your first times IV-ing drugs, I wanted to point out that now is the time to make sure you use proper technique. There are several good guides to IV-ing properly, meaning with the least amount of damage to your veins and with the greatest possible safety w.r.t. disease and overdose. I was taught to IV by an idiot, I thought he knew what he was doing and so I trusted him, mostly because he was a friend and a long time dope fiend. By the time I had realized that he knew jack shit I had already done serious damage to my veins. I quickly caught up on the proper technique by reading the guide book "How to Get Off Right", an Internet serach will lead you to the same text. Having read this I found that I was doing a lot of things wrong and that the reason I was having a difficult time hitting myself after only a year of shooting up daily was because I had collapsed many of the best veins in my arms. Luckily I corrected my technique in time and I can still manage to get off using the few veins I have that are still in decent shape. But I sure wish I had done it right from the start, I could have avoided many hours of frustration and lots of absceses.
While I agree the best thing for you, or anyone in your situation, is not to IV very often at all. But in the case that you find yourself doing it more than you originally planned, do yourself a favor and double-check your technique versus one, or preferably more than one of the excellent harm reduction guides available on the Internet. Learning from users is a risky endeavour as most users I have met do at least one critical thing wrong when they inject.
Best wishes,
speedball
