Harm Reduction How "clean" are micron filtered pills for IV use??

[romealone]

It's been said a thousand times that if u are going to be dumb enough to shoot pills, you should at least micron filter them.
However this sentiment seems to suggest that even with micron filtering, it's still dangerous practice.

I'm curious about the relative safety of shooting pills (specifically IR pills), that have been passed through a 0.2 micron filter and shot with sterile water? Why should these be any worse for you then actual ampules? With a filter that small, you must be getting rid of all of the dangerous insolubles like talc, starch, cellulose, etc, so what exactly is the danger aside from the obvious danger the actual drug poses?

What would end up in the filtered solution that would be a danger that isn't in ampules?

I'm trying to be as safe as possible and while I would never ever inject a pill that hasn't been micron filtered, I worry that thing are still making into my system that could cause problems.

Lastly, i would think shooting a micron filtered pill is safer than shooting a cotton filtered shot of heroin, however people seem to look down on the practice of shooting pills faaarrrrr more, even if its been micron filtered. So what's the real relative risk here? Thanks

 

[rhun]

I don't remember the exact percentages, but there was a study done that someone posted that tested how effective different filters where. They tested micron filters, cotton, cigarette filters and I think one more thing. But micron filters didn't NOT filter out 100% of all the particles and other stuff. In fact I was surprised because it was only like 8% better than cotton. Again, can't remember all the exact percentages. Maybe someone will know which study I'm talking about or remember the thread where it was posted.

 

[tricomb]

Written for opiophile, but decided I'd post it here as well
Introduction & Context
I recently attended a pill injection workshop in Australia, among the people at this workshop, there was a man called Dr. Bruno Raimondo, him and his team are running research into opioid pills such as OxyContin, MSContin and Subutex and the effectiveness of filtering. In the morphine forum I already summarized a document he did, I managed to obtain a copy of the slides he used at the presentation, although he has not released the formal version (which I will link to when he has) of the research, the slides he has emailed me are sufficient for the information people need to know.
Too long didn't read:
Don't heat pills, 2-3ml of water soaking your finely powdered pill, with a 1ml rinse through your filter (SHOULD be using a wheel filter) will give you the best results. Wheel filters are necessity they don't retain any drug (95-99% is let through, cotton filters let through less). Expect health problems down the road if you shoot cotton filtered pills.
Harms of pill injection
Injecting pills (or anything) can result in contaminants entering your body such as insoluble particles or bacteria and fungi. These things can irritate and inflame tissue and veins, cause infections in skin/muscle (granuloma, abscess). They can also result in local and systemic infection from the bacteria/fungi.

Insoluble and undissolved particles can cause microcirculation capillaries (5-10um) to become blocked, they clog up in the heart and lungs. Granulomas in the lungs are caused by inflammation which leads to scar tissue (fibrosis). Congmomerate masses lead to restrictive lung disease and pulmonary hypertension. The particles also reach other organs (liver, kidney etc).

Key particles in pills (OxyContin, MSContin, Subutex)

Other insoluble particles included are:
Magnesium stearate (5-30um)
Titanium dioxide (100um clumps) (ms, oxy)
Other particles that change form in heat are:
Stearyl alcohol MP is 59*C (ms, oxy)
Eudragit RS 30D clumps at >30*C (oxy)

All these particles cause problems in your heart, lungs and other organs, the chemicals that change form in heart are the reasons why pills should NOT be heated, and you will soon find out there is no advantage to heating.

Why pills shouldn't be heated

As you can see, of these images under a microscope, heating pill solutions cause enourmous particles to dissolve in the mix. These particles will pass through the filter (wheel or cotton) and recongeal, precipitating out in your filtered mix or veins.

Ok so I shouldn't heat, what about Rollie cigarette filter filtering (or cotton).

For comparison: MSContin rollies reduce particles >5um by 60%.

What about the drug retained?

For subutex 97% of the drug is returned in this process.
Drug is not retained in the filter after this, even if the filter is wet.
.
Wheel filters (and why they rock!)
Here is the solution of two pills under a microscope before and after wheel filtering

But how many particles are removed by the wheel filters?

But what about drug recovery

For subutex drug recovery is 99%
*Note: One of the researches reminded me to say that when they first did these tests, their technique with wheel filters was poor, and that morphine recovery is more like 95-99%

So as you can see, using wheel filters removes all the particles that cause harm (basically), with a rinse of water after first filter, you can retain 95-99% of the drug (better then a cotton/rollie filter) while removing 99% of the particles that cause harm, and heating is generally a bad idea that does NOT help at all, and does more harm then good.
Note: Hand rolled cigarette filters filter to about 50um.

Another document for the national drug safety council, which focused mainly on morphine and wheel filters, also contains a lot of information. It is located here.

I also posted this in Australian drug discussion but was told to also post it here.

(source)

 

[SaosinEngaged]

Awesome post, Tricomb.

Extremely informative.

 

[tricomb]

Yeah, I obviously didn't write it, but I cite that post all the time, it's very thorough and carries the official tricomb seal of approval.

 

[tentram]

why they're considered imperative for pills is because you're reducing the amount of insoluble particles which other filters aren't as effective in doing so.

they they're imperative for street drugs is the elimination of the prospect of the gear being contaminated with bacteria, as well as insoluble cuts - less of a factor.

pharmaceutical drugs contain a lot more filler/binder : active drug. missing an injection with a higher rate of insoluble particles will result in more damage down the road and cause the more instantaneous (and life threatening) complications.

 

[cook]

So it seem micron filtered pills are actually pretty safe to shoot in general? Only hazard I can think of are the microscopic tears that may happen in the filter allowing more material to pass through. Filtering twice should eliminate this as well.

 

[tricomb]

^No, it is not considered safe to inject pills regardless of the filtration.

Intravenous drug abuse is a very serious action that has very serious consequences, and while you can reduce harm using these HR tactics that Bluelight shares, it is never considered actually safe to be injecting pills. There are many other factors involved that determine risk.

For example, overdose cannot be prevented by micron filtering. Also, if a person is heating their solution, for whatever reason (although you really shouldn't have to do this with US heroin and certainly not with pharmaceuticals) the heat melts contaminates into the solution which are able to pass right through the filtration device.

 

[romealone]

^No, it is not considered safe to inject pills regardless of the filtration.

Intravenous drug abuse is a very serious action that has very serious consequences, and while you can reduce harm using these HR tactics that Bluelight shares, it is never considered actually safe to be injecting pills. There are many other factors involved that determine risk.

For example, overdose cannot be prevented by micron filtering. Also, if a person is heating their solution, for whatever reason (although you really shouldn't have to do this with US heroin and certainly not with pharmaceuticals) the heat melts contaminates into the solution which are able to pass right through the filtration device.

I obv agree that IV can never been considered safe as there are inherent risks as they relate to overdose etc, however I am trying to determine the risk of shooting micron filtered pills in terms of the dangers posed by particles, fillers and other inactives that are found in pills.

As an example, should there be any increased dangers or risks when IVing a micron filtered shot of dilaudid compared to injecting from a sterile vile of injectable dilaudid solution. Obviously the OD risk is the same, but despite the micrn filter, are there still thins that make it into your shot when micron filtering a pill, or should it produce a solution that is as safe as a solution intended for IV.

 

[cook]

As an example, should there be any increased dangers or risks when IVing a micron filtered shot of dilaudid compared to injecting from a sterile vile of injectable dilaudid solution. Obviously the OD risk is the same, but despite the micrn filter, are there still thins that make it into your shot when micron filtering a pill, or should it produce a solution that is as safe as a solution intended for IV.

Micron filtering does not sterilize, bacterians might not make it through but at least viruses do.

 

[tricomb]

I obv agree that IV can never been considered safe as there are inherent risks as they relate to overdose etc, however I am trying to determine the risk of shooting micron filtered pills in terms of the dangers posed by particles, fillers and other inactives that are found in pills.

As an example, should there be any increased dangers or risks when IVing a micron filtered shot of dilaudid compared to injecting from a sterile vile of injectable dilaudid solution. Obviously the OD risk is the same, but despite the micrn filter, are there still thins that make it into your shot when micron filtering a pill, or should it produce a solution that is as safe as a solution intended for IV.

A pure hydromorphone ampoule designed for injection is always going to be safer than a micron filtered hydromorphone solution derived from crushed pharmaceutical tablets.

Micron filters only filter out particles greater than 0.2um, and I'm afraid that while this is a great initiative to take for intravenous drug abusers, we still have to worry about all the particles that are smaller than 0.2um, and of course, other factors like heated solution, prep process etc.