Will: Yeah, that makes much more sense although I had wanted to add (I was pressed for time though) that how someone "feels" is entirely subjective. There is a very quantified physiological response in long term addicts but how they describe that physiological response is not arguable. For longterm addicts it really is a living hell but in retrospect those of us who have experienced are lucky to have done so, given the other side of the coin.
Spaaz: "One has to "go out" to be considered as an "overdose.": No, not at all. As I said, it is like any other poisining, your system purges. I will offer a subjective experience:
When I first moved to the US I was living in Tampa, Florida and at that time there was virtually no opiates/opioids whatsoever on the street (that only came along after 1994 when the Witness Protection Program began dumping all their Puerto Rican District clients in the Orlando area, and they flooded Central and Southern Florida with Colombian heroin).
So...to get my supply I would fly back and forth to NYC. Like many Middle Eastern Peoples, I have extensive 450 Metabolism, meaning I naturally require much more than a so called "normal" person to even feel opiates/opioids, let alone get a nice "nod" from it.
The result was, when I was younger and less educated about the dangers, etc., that I would break open 4 glassines (in other words 400 mgs. of "street" heroin) whenever I "copped" (bought), whereas most people without a steady addiction start with 50 mgs. (half of one glassine).
I bought a brand I had never done on one trip, and thank G-D I did not break open 4, I merely sufficed with one because of a heavily police presence, taking the rest with me to my hotel. I insufflated ("sniffed") half, and then the whole bag and proceeded to board a subway. Before I fit the next station I had the worst naseau of my life, as well as a massive "nod."
Most people vomit when they have no tolerance but it is not an unpleasant experience. In my case this has never happened, not even my first time and in this case it was the worst I have ever felt. By the time I got to my hotel room -15 minutes-I just made it to the toilet where I sat with my face for literally 2 and a half days of almost straight vomiting and dry heaves after everything had come up.
I did not become unconscious at all.
I had a second experience like that as well not long after.