H-bomb (heroin) testing

[themagicbean]

Are there any simple ways of IDing the quality of smack. Sight taste smell etc.? Also not-as-easy tests (color rxns, burns) would be appreciated. Maybe you experts could just throw out pretty much anything you think a newbie ought to know, while you're at it.
thanks.
And credit Zorn for the slang. it's not neccesarily inconspicuous (who's going to believe you're dropping--I love puns--or picking up H-bombs?) but it's got that cool apocalyptic ring to it.

 

[EvilSpaceMonk]

Well it's definitely not sure fire, but there are ways to tell you didn't get completely ripped off. Where are you trying to score?
SMELL - I don't know to what extent smell plays a part in East Coast dope, but here in the West the shit usually smells STRONGLY of vinegar (not really vinegar but the closest describable thing I can think of). Once you smell it for the first time, you'll always know what to smell for.
TASTE - Couldn't really tell you since I don't know shit about the taste of East Coast shit, but my guess would be it doesn't taste good. Probably make your face pucker up. Black tar heroin tastes like asshole. If you're smoking it, it's really hard not to gag and I always need something to chase it with like soda or something.
SIGHT - Now this can get tricky, because when dealing with brown/yellow/white/off-white powdery substances the eye isn't a very useful asset. The general rule of thumb is the brown clumpy shit is the most pure. Everything else, depending on color is more heavily cut. This isn't to say that there isn't really amazing white/off-white heroin out there, but typically this is how it works.
For a good idea of what to look for, check out this link:
http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/show_image.php3?image=heroin/heroin5.jpg
It progresses in purity and cut from TOP to BOTTOM. That's to say the Brown clump shit on top is the best and everything else is more heavily cut going down.
As far as black tar, shit it looks like funky shit. Sometimes it's a nice pliable gooey tar kind of like opiun and sometimes its more of a rock that needs to be cut into pieces as opposed to being gooey enough to be pulled apart.
Hope that helps...
Lemme know how your quest goes, if you're on one...
[ 20 February 2002: Message edited by: EvilSpaceMonk ]

 

[SovietContin]

East Coast heroin from Southeast Asia:
Smell: none.
Taste: will make you want to spit immediately after touching even a mere few grains to your tongue. has almost a soap-like after taste.
Sight: Dark brown to light brown to tan to off-white course powder or rocky chunks. Originally I thought that the darker the batches were the better. The first few batches I got, the color of the heroin influenced the color of the water. The strongest dope I had gotten actually turned the water black. The batches have changed since September. Now the better dope is an off-white color and breaks down easily and completely in the water, only giving it a slight tinge. So what does this tell us? Unless you've got a fine powder like finally chopped meth, ketamine or cocaine which would indicate it's cut to hell (you want to be looking for stuff that's rocks and not just going to fall apart into a fine powder by slicing it a few times with a razor.. rather you would have to apply a lot of pressure like put a plastic card and push down with your hands on it to break it up finely), the sight doesn't matter as long as it's a earth-toned crunchy course powder or rocks.
If you're buying dope like this, learn what it taste like. Taste test your batches. In the future when you're buying from a street dealer, taste before you purchase so you know it's real. You're not going to be able to do much else to determine the quality.
You will be able to somewhat tell the purity later if you're going to IV it. If you put the dope in water and crush it and stir it well but there are parts left that don't disolve, that's the cut.