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Heroin IV Questions, Issues! Help.

SwissArmy

Greenlighter
Joined
Feb 15, 2025
Messages
13
Location
Ireland
I've been using IV heroin for just under a year now. Jumped on the needle after years of smoking looking for a better high. I've never been good at it and always had issues yet lately these have came to a head.

I have only been going in arms and hands. Lately my veins have been completely disappearing and I don't know why. In the last week they have just vanished. I've now totally exhausted them all. The ones I can see seem to be collapsed. How can people shoot up for years and this has happened to me under a year?

What does it mean when you have a big vein, get the needle in, get a register yet when I push it begins to burn like a miss... I then pull back again to check if still in and yes good flow of blood, in this case I'll end up missing. Are these collapsed? Does long term IV use of heroin cause blood pressure issues?

Would coming off for a week or two reset my veins and blood pressure? Even with a tourniquet now I cannot get any veins to pop.Im at my wits end and looking at hitting my jugular or femoral now as I'm stick to death of poking myself over ane over and nothing.
 
I've been using IV heroin for just under a year now. Jumped on the needle after years of smoking looking for a better high. I've never been good at it and always had issues yet lately these have came to a head.

I have only been going in arms and hands. Lately my veins have been completely disappearing and I don't know why. In the last week they have just vanished. I've now totally exhausted them all. The ones I can see seem to be collapsed. How can people shoot up for years and this has happened to me under a year?

What does it mean when you have a big vein, get the needle in, get a register yet when I push it begins to burn like a miss... I then pull back again to check if still in and yes good flow of blood, in this case I'll end up missing. Are these collapsed? Does long term IV use of heroin cause blood pressure issues?

Would coming off for a week or two reset my veins and blood pressure? Even with a tourniquet now I cannot get any veins to pop.Im at my wits end and looking at hitting my jugular or femoral now as I'm stick to death of poking myself over ane over and nothing.
Definitely sounds like you’ve done some serious vascular damage - probably at least semi permanent how permanent I can’t be sure. If you’re injecting a lot and if you’re injecting certain things in certain ways the damage can accumulate quite quickly. But virtually all regular IV users I know develop severe vascular damage and problems like you describe. What is your injection protocol like?

If you’re registering, but it burns when you push it in it sounds like you punctured the vein, so you’re in it, but you damaged it by going all the way through it.

Damaging your vasculature can lead to blood pressure issues, yes. And the heroin itself too - but only when you’re on it. Other cuts could be contributing and depending on where you live there may be quite a number of active cuts or at least cuts that would not simply be inert when injected. Have you ever tested the stuff that you’re injecting?

I don’t think a short break will do anything miraculous but you definitely need to take a break if you can. Otherwise things will likely only decline further. I also really suck at smoking so I use it nasally - I make about a day’s worth of solution (because unfortunately it degrades rather quickly in aqueous solution) in a 10 mL bottle with a eyedropper. It will not produce as intense an effect as injecting or smoking, but it’s far less damaging to your body. At least give it a try.
 
Thanks for your reply bro! I usually do two or three shots a day and had been hitting first try for most of the time. Always used a 29g BD needle, very sterile, always at home, new cooker, sterile water, alcohol swab. Only thing is I'd reuse the rigs usually about 4 times each.

I know I'm not going through the vein as it happening in both cephalic veins anywhere on the vein, feels like it's being blocked or something I can't tell but I'll get a burn and then some histamine reaction further up the vein every time.

It's just freaking me out that I cannot get any veins to pop at all now whatsoever, tried going into some tiny veins on the hands but it's too painful.

I should go back to smoking it yeah but it's difficult, I love the whole process of the needle which is messed up
 
Thanks for your reply bro! I usually do two or three shots a day and had been hitting first try for most of the time. Always used a 29g BD needle, very sterile, always at home, new cooker, sterile water, alcohol swab. Only thing is I'd reuse the rigs usually about 4 times each.

I know I'm not going through the vein as it happening in both cephalic veins anywhere on the vein, feels like it's being blocked or something I can't tell but I'll get a burn and then some histamine reaction further up the vein every time.

It's just freaking me out that I cannot get any veins to pop at all now whatsoever, tried going into some tiny veins on the hands but it's too painful.

I should go back to smoking it yeah but it's difficult, I love the whole process of the needle which is messed up
Reusing rigs is definitely causing extra damage because especially with the tiniest needles they get bent so easily and the more you use them the dollar they get and the more damage they do. Glad to hear the rest of it though.

If you’re definitely not going through the vein, then I would my first assumption would be that there’s something in what you’re injecting that is causing a burn but obviously then you would feel it on every single injection. So maybe you’re hitting scar tissue or something like that. But I would like to hear others way and who have personal experience with vasculature damage.

Oh yeah, that would freak me out majorly too. Seriously though, give nasal a try because I found that I waste so much trying to get an effect from smoking that I can get so much more easily and with less waste via nasal use. Just make sure that the the solution you make is very concentrated and only make a day’s worth at a time. So I make like 2ml a day, using about 100mg. I too find the whole IV process appealing (weirdly I also really like to inject other people) but luckily in my case I also have always had bad veins for injecting - they’re small and elliptical and I have naturally low blood pressure. Most phlebotomists can’t draw blood on me and poke through the veins. So because of that, I just don’t have the vasculature to ever be a regular IV drug user even if I wanted to be one. But I’m surprised by how much even just using my nasal dropper bottle has an addictive effect and even just making up that solution has its own appeal. And I don’t even like opiates! But I do love ritual.
 
Yes you've hit the nail on the head there about the ritual .. it's addicting as hell. I always laughed when people said that you get addicted to the needle itself and they were 100% right. The whole ritual about it is as intoxicating as the drug itself. I can't see myself doing any drugs any other way now.

I'm in Europe so using brown heroin that needs citric acid for it to dissolve so that's been damaging my veins to. I feel like my blood pressure as just completely fallen off now. Reusing the rigs has for sure caused damage it's only done when I keep missing or get a bit of blood in and get super frustrated. I'm still finding some small veins and have finally managed to hit the basilic vein first time ever so thankfully I'm not going into withdrawal yet.

I think both my cephalic veins have collapsed or something I don't know, it's just an automatic miss in a big thick juicy vein that gives a strong stream of blood when registering... Sounds crazy.

That sucks about your veins dude but probably a good thing looking at the bigger picture. I'm gonna just smoke or boof for a bit I can't stand anything up the nose. Would just love to know the exact issue with the vein.
 
Yes you've hit the nail on the head there about the ritual .. it's addicting as hell. I always laughed when people said that you get addicted to the needle itself and they were 100% right. The whole ritual about it is as intoxicating as the drug itself. I can't see myself doing any drugs any other way now.

I'm in Europe so using brown heroin that needs citric acid for it to dissolve so that's been damaging my veins to. I feel like my blood pressure as just completely fallen off now. Reusing the rigs has for sure caused damage it's only done when I keep missing or get a bit of blood in and get super frustrated. I'm still finding some small veins and have finally managed to hit the basilic vein first time ever so thankfully I'm not going into withdrawal yet.

I think both my cephalic veins have collapsed or something I don't know, it's just an automatic miss in a big thick juicy vein that gives a strong stream of blood when registering... Sounds crazy.

That sucks about your veins dude but probably a good thing looking at the bigger picture. I'm gonna just smoke or boof for a bit I can't stand anything up the nose. Would just love to know the exact issue with the vein.
I’m also in Europe and so until recently (when I finally found some truly high-quality #4 from an overseas vendor on a DNM) I was using #3. It’s more difficult because you have to make sure not to use too much acid when making your solution but it still works nasally. And I hate snorting things but using a purified aqueous solution is totally different, and more effective too. The only issue is that there’s some bitter drip down the back of your throat, but it’s not that bad. The way that I purify my solution is I make it in a shot glass that is as V shaped as possible and I don’t use heat, I just add water and acid. Then I let it settle and it will separate into two layers with the drug in the liquid on top and then all the cut below. I just take off that top liquid and put that in my dropper bottle. It sounds like you can still get decent h in the Isles, so maybe what you’re getting isn’t full of cut like mine, but even the very best #3 I’ve ever been able to find had at least 50% cut. Often much more than that.

If you can handle saline solution in your nose, you can handle h solution. But I don’t think it will give you the rush that you’re looking for. There are some subtle effects I get from IV that I don’t from nasal use, but I don’t miss them, other than how fast it kicks in of course. Can’t comment on smoking because I’ve never even been able to get ANY effect from smoking it and I’ve tried extensively. I seem to be very bad at smoking things though. Even if other people are helping me, I still can’t get it into my bloodstream. And I’ve been using for 15 years!

Not saying you need to always use nasally or anything, but I think you should at least give it a proper try and have it as an option, at least to keep you out of withdrawal. Other people I’ve gotten to try my method also agree that it’s much less wasteful than smoking. Only IV is more economical.
 
Yeah I've been chugging water like crazy but no effect really. My veins are just done for. I found a small vein I used on the hand once and it immediately disappeared. All in have now is the basilic veins and they are messing me about too since earlier the same thing happend as does with the cephalic, get in, strong register, begin to push and auto miss only this time I could see a bubble form so it's being leaky as hell.

Don't know if they are collapsed or just blowing cause they are so weak whatever the reason a new ROA is needed unfortunately.
 
Yeah I've been chugging water like crazy but no effect really. My veins are just done for. I found a small vein I used on the hand once and it immediately disappeared. All in have now is the basilic veins and they are messing me about too since earlier the same thing happend as does with the cephalic, get in, strong register, begin to push and auto miss only this time I could see a bubble form so it's being leaky as hell.

Don't know if they are collapsed or just blowing cause they are so weak whatever the reason a new ROA is needed unfortunately.

I hesitate to ask this, but we're all grown ups here so here goes: have you tried your femoral vein? Back in my junky days, my dealer told me about how, no matter how tapped out your veins are, you can always hit your femoral vein. I've never done it, but I watched him do it and I'll always remember because he pulled his pants halfway down to do it, and i could see part of his dick which was rather unexpected and something I really didn't care to see, so now the image is seared into my brain forever! 😝

Anyway, I know there are instructions on how to hit your femoral vein online, probably on this very site.
 
Okay this was the first thing I found, and it leads me to believe that my suggestion was probably a bad idea. Yikes! My dealer made it seem like no big deal...
There’s a reason you only see desperate junkies doing this crap. Anytime I see someone inject in the lower half of their body, I know they’re fucked. It’s just a matter of time.
 
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