@Shroomy "Also, I'd be interested in personal stories about what happened after some of you switched over."
Well first of all I agree with this other commenter here who stated your story is kinda confusing although I find it a bit confusing for another reason. You say you're on H for about 5 years now and sniff about 0.1 g a day right? This is an extremely low dose which is good news btw but I don't see how this dose can help you with chronic back pain. Generally your tolerance goes up pretty quick with H although it's possible to use daily and always take the same amount if you're a very disciplined person, and it certainly helps when you have a stable environment otherwise. I know this guy who's on H for over 2 decades now and steadily only sniffs about a quarter g a day. He works fulltime (for over 20 years!!) but otherwise is a total hermit and hangs around in his apartment, no other activities. His employer knows he's addicted and he looks a bit rough, like with many junkies he neglects personal hygiene but not to the extent that people who have no clue about dope could just tell what's the matter with him. Also his apartment doesn't look like your average addicts room, it's pretty clean. If you ask him about his drug use he will state that he needs it to function yet at the same time I never felt that sense of urgency when he talks about what dope means in his life that I feel for myself when it comes to H. I know tons of other addicts and users but from the longtime addicts he's the only one I know who's for two decades on the same small dose and constantly works, no rehab, no prison stints, nothing else. Your comments just reminded me of him a bit although I wondered if you're really truthful about how long you use. No offence but on the Net for some reasons when it comes to drug discussion there are so many bullshitters and druggie wannabees although I fail to see what's so glorious to be addicted to dope.
Myself I'm a chronic longtime addict and I would advice against IV use but not for the same reasons people usually are against it. Usually people discourage IV use because of an irrational fear of the needle coupled with (when they happen to be users themselves) a self-righteous attitude that one form of consumption somehow makes them better or less of an addict themselves. As far as addiction goes it makes absolutely no difference if you sniff it, smoke it, take it orally, rectally or shoot it up. Really it makes no difference addiction-wise. But healthwise it makes a difference, smoking is hard on your lungs, sniffing affects your nose, orally your stomach and shooting up your veins. Of course there are other side effects like Hep. C, HIV and such but I'll let these aside here. I sniffed H for about 3.5 years before I started to shoot it up. This was at a time when the street dope was way better than the crap you'll find these days, estimated degree of purity ranged between 35-60% during these years. Started out with my arms, then after these fat veins collapsed used my hands, then fingers. It took me between 10 to 20 min. per shot. Then I gave up on my arms and started to shoot in my thighs and on the outer and inner side there and worked my way down to the lower legs. Often it took me up to an hour until I found a vein, esp. in the morning. Fast forward another 4 years of shooting in my legs and the situation became real ugly. I shot in my foot, the back of my lower legs and knees, just about everywhere where I still could reach myself and inject. I used to place a couple newspapers on the floor because I had to make countless attempts and blood would run down my leg. I had huge piles of used needles on my table (Thank god in Europe they have syringes where one can exchange the needle unless these shitty insulin syringes they sell in the freaking US), used one for about 4-5 attempts and then changed the needle. It often took me up to 2 hours which meant I was forced to abort the first attempt because the blood inside got thick and clogged the needle. At first I'd remove the needle, press the clogged blood out, put a new needle on and continue. But after more than an hour the shot is useless so I had to throw it away. And we're talking 0.7 g shots here. So I had to cook another one up and continue for the second try. There were mornings where I had to do 3 tries and after 2.5 hours I had some kind of nervous breakdown, dripping with ugly sweat and started to cry and curse the universe. For a while I went back to my hands and started to shoot into the palm of my hands and fingers (side), I had to buy special very thin and short needles in the pharmacy and learn the right technique to inject into the capillaries. Pretty painful but the withdrawals and my general stubbornness made me do it. Then I kinda gave up and went back to sniffing for a couple weeks, found it highly unsatisfying and switched to smoking which wasn't better so I switched back to sniffing. Finally I had the idea to have one of my customers (was selling dope at that time) shoot me up. Every morning between 7 and 7.30 he'd show up, I gave him his piece and after he shot up I lay down and he injected me behind my shoulders, back or behind the legs where I couldn't reach myself. It worked pretty good but these were all very thin small veins and they kept collapsing of course way faster than the big thick veins (like on the arms). After another arrest and prison detox I went back to sniffing while waiting for my second trial. Finally I ended up in a H maintenance program where I'm still at these days. I get pure H twice a day and still shoot it although the only veins left are on my feet. Since it's pure H the veins don't collapse resp. you can shoot up to 8-12 months in ONE freaking vein while if I'd shoot street dope there it would be gone after maybe 2-3 shots. And the veins I used with pure H will recover if I switch to another one for a couple months. Also if the day comes nothing goes anymore there's the possibility to shoot it intramuscularly.
These days I have huge problems with my legs, the diagnosis is "venous insufficiency with lymphedemas" and I have water in my legs. I have to wear special compression stockings daily and go to lymph drainage therapy. The last specialist I consulted told me to take my treatment more seriously (some days I don't wear the stockings) because I might face amputation of my right leg in the future. This coming autumn I'm scheduled to undergo an in-patient therapy for 15 days because my doctor is concerned with my lymphedemas, I have several open sores on both lower legs and I cannot manage to get them to heal up and close. He thinks this special treatment could do that but it's uncertain. In any case it is a chronic progressive illness, uncurable and you have to deal with it for life. The stockings resp. compression only helps to slow down or stop the damage to your lymphatic system at best. I'd strongly advise against ever shooting in your legs! Btw I also have problems with my hands, sometimes I experience numbness or when I lay on the side on my bed and read my arm starts to go numb, also my hands are very sensitive to cold. But compared to my leg problems its minimal.
And like others already told you, switching to IV will (most likely) not help you to lower your dose or save dope in the long run. It makes no sense after all you told us here. But again I wonder how truthful you are about your addiction. Usually I'd have asked about switching to Methadone or something similar but with the dose you claim to do plus the other circumstances of your life you mentioned, switching to Methadone seems like a bad move. As far as chronic back pain goes Methadone would be way more effective than H but Methadone is terrible in the long run and way worse than H. Hard to come down imo. What about detox/rehab anyway? And just for the record, this reply is posted to you obviously but I wrote it also for other readers and mainly because today is one of these days and moments where I felt like writing about my own situation a bit.
