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Questions for users of IV tar heroin

negrogesic

Bluelight Crew
Joined
Jul 21, 2002
Messages
12,554
Location
Negronesia
There doesnt seem to be too many people on this board that inject tar heroin, most likely because of geographic reasons, as tar heroin is pretty much exclusively found on the west and particularly south west region of the US. From my observation most heroin users who post here are using powdered heroin. And the ones that do encounter tar, seem to smoke it.

My questions are for those who use brown/black tar heroin intravenously.

Are there anyone here who injects tar heroin with some regularity? How much do you shoot and how do you measure it ("dimes", $20 balloons, milligrams/grams?). Also, how do you prepare it, do you cook it (i dont see how you can not), or do you use chemicals to dissolve it, and how do you filter? When i am done filtering (using cotton), the solution left in my syringe is usually a dark brown color, and is not very consistent. Even with a micron filter (which suck for filtering tar), you still get a brown sludge like solution. I know this sounds nasty, it is nasty, but hell, the stuff works. I assume those who shoot tar also shoot a dark brown solution.

Another issue is health. Have you experienced health problems from injecting tar, and of what nature were these problems (infection, fevers, a bad batch etc.). I am not a daily user of heroin, but i have been using it alot lately (3-4x a week), and i am currently tapering down from 180mg methadone maintenance, so because of tolerance i have to shoot at least half a gram of good tar (not mud tar) with 120-140mg of diazepam, no exceptions, and this combo is really the only way i can get a good nod while on methadone. Sometimes, i get kidney pains after shooting up, but it has not happened in a while. I have had liver panels, and supposedly they are normal. Still, i have concerns. Now i will only shoot heroin that comes in a balloon, and inside the balloon it is normally wrapped with foil, then some saran wrap. I only accept the balloons because they seem to be less tampered with, and the tar is not directly handled by as many people as a random chunk of tar. It gives me some false sense of security....

I am just rambling on here, and i know this post is inapplicable to 98% of the people who post in this forum, but i would like some replies from anyone who uses/used heroin intravenously. Not to be an asshole, but im not really looking for experiences of smoked tar. I simply would like to hear from people who inject tar heroin (or used to). So if you have experience with injecting tar heroin, i would like to hear from you.....
 
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Ahoy-
I mainline black tar heroin every now and then (Houston, TX), although I used to be a daily user. I did some today, in fact (first time in 6 weeks).
I usually get it by the 1/2 gram. The smallest amount sold is usually what is called a "paper," which I think is 1/16 of a gram.
Generally (for me, at least), with no tolerance, a paper is enough for one strong or two decent shots.
Since I usually buy tar by the 1/2 gram or gram, and don't use it too often (anymore ;) ) I usually make up a shot by putting a blob in the spoon more or less the size of a tic-tac. Add water.
Now, here is where techniques seem to vary. I, my own self, use the plunger to dissolve the tar in water, adding
just a little heat if it needs it. Once the tar is fully dissolved, I cook until it just barely starts to boil, then add cotton, draw up, and shoot.
Now then: other people I know do it this way, while about an equal number start to cook with the (basically) undissolved blob stuck to the spoon's bowl and submerged in water. They also cook it considerably longer, letting it boil for 10-15 seconds or more (and obviously using more water for the same amount of tar to account for the increased vaporization of water).
The only physical problems I have encountered from frequent use of BTH (aside from incidental ones such as needle wounds, severe itching and... oh, yeah -- addiction) is dehydration resulting in dry, flaking skin.

Yeah, every once in a while is fun, but I don't ever want to be dependent on that shit again. Blech.
 
negrogesic-

this past fall (august-november) i lived in Seattle and used tar daily as it was the only form available to me.

i started buying 1/4 gram at a time (15-20$), although the street dealers there rarely measured it out, usually you just walk around the block with them, they take out a knife and cut off a small chunk from their blob of tar. even if it was in little bags, they just measured it by sight, not by a scale. i didn't use anything to measure what i was going to shoot, i just knew. start off small always to see the potency, then shoot whatever i needed to get off.

by the time i left seattle i was buying an 8-ball of tar a day, it came in the different colored balloons straight from their dealers.

to shoot it i mixed it with sterile water from the needle exchange, heated it, filtered it with cotton, and shot it. sometimes i would used the other end of the needle to break it up in the water so it would breakdown easier. i never had any health problems resulting from it, besides those of my own stupidity (i.e. trying to shoot into veins too small to be hit) and i shot into my hands quite often.

im guessing you don't have access to powder, that would be my suggestion if you don't feel good about shooting tar. i dunno, i guess i got used to it after a while, but it never seemed right shooting something that color into my arms.


i started using dope in chicago, and i prefer powder, tar makes me feel dirtier. and the smell really gets to me when cooking it. sometimes i would puke JUST from the fuckin smell while i was cooking it up.
 
Sometimes i'll score the tar, usualy at junkie ruts ill score aout 2grams of black tar for around $35. I dont get it in the baloons often usualy wrapped in foil and always eyed, noones got digis. I shoot the same way my old neighbourhood friends showed me and i couldnt imagine any other way. Cook small blob in spoon with water until it starts to bubble and is more concentrated solution. Bang it up and wait to test. after which i'll propably shoot about 1/4g more depending on the potency of this shit. I usualy get pretty average stuff so sometimes i'll have to combine with 50mg+ morph to really feel bliss.
 
Tar and how it is used, another story

Measure: Grams or 1/4 grams, 1/4grams or points (one-tenth of a gram) are the unit sold by the dealers in my area. $10 a point straight up is the usual. But point only buyers are treated poorly. As an incentive you usually get five quarter bags for $100 US. In Mexico the same gram and a quarter can be purchased for $10 - if you know the right people. I used to get $75 grams weighing about 1.2 grams in Tijuana. I am shooting about 0.75 to 1.0 g / daily, less to maintain …more to nod the day away. Where I live we get the most potent tar in the US (per the DEA's street purchasing program whereby they buy and analyze street drugs). The purity is about 50% according to the DEA, a recent batch I got was likely more than that, damn near laid a lot of people out).

Prep'd usually by placing about 0.25 grams "powder" (or "tar" - depending upon how the material has been handled - all the "tar" in my locale starts as a black or brown powder and becomes tarry like with handling and/or heat) into a clean spoon. About 20 to 50 units of clean, bottled water (non-municipal source) is added to the spoon. It is heated with a butane "torch" style lighter which rapidly and evenly heats the solution, without boiling - some bubbles but no boiling! The solution is mixed until the tar/powder all disperses. Good stuff will have zero residue (pretty common here - rare elsewhere) and cut stuff will have floaters. If it is heavily cut it may help to reheat the mixture with the torch lighter and some of the cut will coagulate at the top of the solution during re-heating making it easy to pull that aside with a clean tool. After cooling, the solution is filtered through cotton into the rig. It is now ready to go to a clean spot for injection.

The solution that results is usually not too dark; cut crap will be real dark, we don’t have that problem like Denver does! It isn't unusual to have a solution dark enough to make seeing blood in the rig more difficult. The darker the solution the worse the dope in my experience. In other parts of the western US I have seen really cut tar and it will even have floaters which appear in the rig AFTER filtering and allowing it to sit for a few minutes. Closer to Mexico the quality of the dope is sometimes much better. I have shot all colors of Tar solutions from nearly clear (rare) to black. Cleaner stuff is cleaner in all regards, better high, easier to filter, etc....

No health problems from tar other than falling out, minor OD - from mixing with benzos like a dumb ass. I have gotten cellulitis from poor hygiene while shooting Coke. No kidney issues here.

I didn't read all the above response yet but I have to ask - how do you shoot the diazepam? I hope from ampoules from a hospital pharmacy or the like. Valium is not water soluble.

I have shot Oxys in the past and the rush is comparable, the high not as fulfilling or long lasting. But as for opiates the tar available in the proximity of the US / Mexico border where I am staying now is often of very high quality, but not always. In any case it is better than what I have seen in Denver, L.A., SanFran and New Orleans. I know that the material I receive goes through only one other person who speaks English as a native language before I get it. That helps keep the cut and other BS to a minimum. What we get here could be cut up to 50% and sold in the rural West for the same price.
 
All very good replies! All of this interests me very much, as i know most people here shoot powder.......

About that "clear" tar, yes its very rare, but its also very good shit. Its extremely light in color and you can see through it. Did you pay extra for this super light colored tar? But most of the shit i get is dark brown and is of good quality. I am about 2 hours from mexico so tar can be found cheap ($150-200 per 6 grams) in downtown LA (dangerous as fuck), but i prefer buying the higher quality sealed half-gram balloons from a guy who is alot closer than downtown LA, but the balloons are considerably more expensive, and ALWAYS weigh at least 500mg. A half-gram balloon is only ONE dose for me, not because its of low quality, but because of my methadone tolerance. I usually cook it pretty hard (yes it boils) because i hate waiting and i want to get my shot right away. I have tried cooking it without boiling, and it didnt seem terribly different. But i should look into a torch type lighter for cooking it more evenly, because i dont want to over heat the heroin and degrade it into a lesser substance. I have never bought tar in mexico (tijuana, rosarito), mainly because of fear of getting some low quality mud, but i would like to seek it out next time i go mexico. Im sure anyone you would ask down there would say they can get it, but its hard to single out the person that actually will get you decent shit without ripping you off.

I wish i had constant access to powder, but given my geographical handicap, i am pretty much limited to tar heroin. Yet i was reading some DEA analysis of some tar samples, and some measured up to 70%+ purity. So its not all bad, i just dont feel too comfortable shooting up a solution with the look and consistency of blood (as someone mentioned). But, the stuff works, i love the nod and resulting sleep, i just need to make sure it doesnt become a habit....

Thanks again for the replies...

Oh, and i dont shoot the diazepam (i know its insoluble), i take the pure powder orally 45 minutes before taking my half-gram shot (i know respiratory depression, but i am accustomed to these doses). I do have some valium ampules, but these are to be saved for emergencies.....
 
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to reply top the original poster's questions back at me:

Yes, the "clear" tar is what we have right now. No extra cost, just a warning for the strength which is needed. This is the best we get. It looks like a clear/translucent chunk of dark tan colored rock. There are no floaters, hardly anything to filter. The filter will not appear to be tarry after filtering this stuff. The solution in the rig is fairly light colored, but very clear/clean.

Don't bother with the high-powered lighter unless you have a good deal of cut in your material that's what it is best for, with the stuff I have now it makes no difference. I could and have "cooked" this stuff cold - no difference that I know except for hygiene.

As for: "Im sure anyone you would ask down there would say they can get it, but its hard to single out the person that actually will get you decent shit without ripping you off. "

Seek out the older people hawking stuff, a man in his thirties or forties, they always have treated me better. I had a guy who worked a bar near the foot bridge in TJ who hooked me up very discretely and always on the up and up - no money until I was satisfied with my stuff and I could always say no. That's the way to go - get a contact down there who works out of a shop or bar and who isn't in a hurry, doesn't rush you, attends to you and is courteous. There are plenty of people who will do this for you if you approach them properly.

Thanks for clarifying the diazepam thing.

Cheers.
 
^^^Thanks, this information is good. I need to find a constant source for that clear tar, that would minimize my worries about adulturants. Its obviously some pretty pure stuff.

I will try for older people down there to score me dope. And is "the foot bridge in TJ" some sort of establishment near revolution street in tijuana (the main tourist area where you first start seeing alot of pharmacies and "phamacia veterinaria")
 
This is kind of late to reply, but since I just had a shot of the stuff I figure you may want my opinion. First off let me give my opinion to this form of heroin.

It is my favorite, not because of its effects (which are inferior to other heroin types, in almost every aspect) but because it's so cheap. I have never been addicted to it. I buy $60-100 every couple months and binge for however long it lasts me. I find I gain no long term tolerance because of this.

I have tried powder, it was great, but much more expensive. Tar seems to be different in a couple fundamental ways. Firstly, which it can be really shitty stuff, it is almost NEVER near pure, so I can safely do a tiny amount that would probably OD me if it was pure powder.

The 'clear' stuff i'm semi familiar with, I think i've had it about a year ago. Tar for me, seems to have a much less intense 'rush' vs powder, but more of a relaxing high. Health issues personally are mostly just dehydration, vomiting when I do it the first time after a few months, and once when i used a 2 hour old cotton(very stupid mistake, ever since i've been much more sterile) I got a nasty fever that I nodded through. I hear people die after a few years from kidney failure when they shoot grams of the stuff every day, i'm not sure how true this is, who knows with streeet drugs.

If you have any specific questions i'd probably have a much easier time answering those.
 
Really? Kidney failure? Thats the main problem ive been having, kidney pains after shooting large doses. This concerns me....
 
Has anyone else noticed the dopelike, vinegary smell that one exudes after using dope a couple of days (or longer) then abstaining?
A friend told me recently that he can smell it even during a binge.
If this is true, could drug dogs (or even a trained human nose) mark you as a junkie even if you're not holding at the time? A scary thought. 8(
 
Lately I got some dark brown tar heroin. Yes, you cook it. I have no idea how much I do. I did too much at first though. It's sure fucking easy to get hooked on that shit---I discovered. Anyway, you wanted to hear from people who shoot tar, so here I am. lol
 
I always got tar (also Houston, TX) and overpayed for it ($50 / half gram). Mostly the benefit of that was that it was from a steady and very safe source.

The stuff we got generally dissolved without very many, if any floating bits. We never really cooked it much, if at all.

Physically neither my boyfriend or I ran into problems (other than addiction), but we both had fairly short habits (a month or so of shooting - but once we started we were doing it every 4-6 hours "as needed").

For reference, a "half gram" was about six doses for me at a time when I would have shot 60mg of oxy.
 
^^^Damn, a half gram is ONE big injection for me, and its good shit too. Fucking methadone tolerance.....

I got alot more responces that i thought i would have......

Thanks......
 
speaking on the mexico thing...if you're already in mexico, just go to a pharmacy and get morphine, demerol, oxycontin, codeine, hydrocodone, dilaudid etc. its all legal and easily obtainale OTC at a pharmacia.
 
Ahhh...demerol, damned perfect. If half a gram was one injection for me i would propably have to quit pretty quick as a ew hours after a nod i always feel like pushing off again.
 
I wish i didnt have to shoot half a gram at a time, and if the dope is low quality i have to shoot .8-1 gram.

speaking on the mexico thing...if you're already in mexico, just go to a pharmacy and get morphine, demerol, oxycontin, codeine, hydrocodone, dilaudid etc. its all legal and easily obtainale OTC at a pharmacia.

^^^This is the most stupid, uninformed misinformation ive seen in a while. Not only does this post have no relevancy to my thread, NONE of those drugs mentioned are OTC in mexico. Even benzos were recently made controlled substances in mexico. The only thing that is truly OTC in mexico is soma and ultram. This is not to say you cant get morphine, oxycodone and whatnot, but its DEFINATELY not over the counter, and you have to find the right pharmacy that will sell you the good stuff. Even then they try to jack up the prices because what they are doing is illegal. To repeat, those drugs, even codeine, are NOT otc in mexico! Dont perpetuate misinformation.......
 
They aren't OTC, but near the right borders, the pharmacies work with a doctor, who writes prescriptions. And, like all things there, prices are negotiable.

I have found strong opiates difficult to obtain (of course, at the time, even 10mg oxys were a good time... but mostly they just had vicodin). I got a Rx written in highlighter, by a nurse, for Rohypnol and Ritalin once.

So, such practices might give the IMPRESSION that it's OTC and legal...

The guy who shot me up the first time was also on methadone maintenance, and said he usually shot the whole "half gram" at once. We each thought each other's standard dose at that time was insane (I was getting probably twenty to thirty doses out of the same amount).

And, wandering way back to the original subject, I know he's shot black tar on a regular basis for at least a couple of decades, and he's never talked about problems related to it being tar.
 
Black Tar Heroin

There is no really accurate way to answer your question. I have been a daily tar user for about 3 years now. I live in st. louis and have run into many differerent ends of the purity spectrum. Some of the tar that you get may be amazingly strong, and some may be very weak, to anything inbetween. Depending upon the purity and cut of the heroin you can tell if there will be health issues. You should always test your tar for scopamine because it can be fatal. Most of your answers can be found at www.erowid.org on the heroin portion of the site. Peace.
 
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