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Shooting Pills That Are Micron Filtered vs. Shooting Street Drugs Filtered w/ Cotton

D

daddysgone

Bluelighter
Joined
Oct 22, 2007
Messages
1,114
I know this isn't a terribly advanced question, but I suspect that if i ask this in OD I will get a bunch of responses consisting of peoples' opinions, and I was really hoping for factual answers. Feel free to move this if you feel it should be elsewhere.

So, clearly the consensus is that shooting pills is a terrible idea. The only way that it seems that this practice is ever considered acceptable, is if one uses a micron filter. However, it seems a bit odd to me that people seem to view shooting street drugs as acceptable. So I find myself wondering:

Generally speaking, what is "safer" in terms of injecting,
1- A solution made from a crushed pill which has then been passed through a micron filter.
2- Street drugs (powder H, cocaine etc), which has simply been filtered through a cotton, and then injected.

I know there are many variable which effect the answer to this question, but all other things being equal, which of these 2 scenarios would provide a cleaner, safer, more pure injectable? Thanks-DG
 
I believe a micron filtered crushed pill is generally speaking the better option. Unless you get your street drugs straight from the manufacturer, and happen to know the manufacturer is a professional level chemist, and is not screwing you over and cutting the drugs... (kinda unlikely, eh?)

Of course it depends on the pharmaceutical. Some have nastier binders than others.

But the point is, you never know what's in a street drug. You usually know what's in a pill.
 
I second the micron filtered choice. There's a thread on here somewhere, I think it's OD, where scientists actually measured the amount of particulates, and what size they were, after filtering with a cigarette filter or a .22 micron wheel filter. The wheel filter recovered the same amount of morphine, but reduced the particulates by 90+% I believe.
 
Thanks for the responses.
I also suspect that shooting pills which have been filtered through a micron filter is a safer practice then shooting "street drugs" which have only been filtered through cotton.

What surprises me is that the mantra on bluelight is that "shooting pills is a terrible idea, even if you use micron filter", and yet no one seems to say a word about the the thousands of posts where people are injecting street drugs which have only been filtered through cotton.
From a harm reduction point of view, shouldn't we be MORE critical of those who use street drugs which have only been cotton filtered?-DG
 
^ No.

People tend to forget that BL represents only 0.0001% (don't quote me on this) of the totality of drug-users.

The vast majority of drug injectors world-wide (think about that prostitute in Kyrgyzatan or that Laotian farmer) have never even heard of micron filters, let alone had access to them. It is great if they would use a cotton, because most of them probably don't.

While I do agree that if you have access to micron filters you absolutely have no business injecting drugs without their use, let's face the reality: Micron filters still have a looooong way to go before becoming mainstream.

In the meantime, I applaud street drug-users who use cotton filters rather than nothing.
 
Here are some studies:

Investigation into the Effectiveness of Filters for use by Intravenous Drug Users
The role of syringe filters in harm reduction among injection drug users.
Caflisch C, Wang J, Zbinden R.

Psychiatric University Clinic, Zurich, Switzerland.
OBJECTIVES: Three filters were tested for in situ efficacy in reducing bacterial contamination associated with injection drug use. METHODS: In a self-matched control design with blinded laboratory testing, injection drug users were asked to use 3 filters in random succession when loading their syringes with drug solute. RESULTS: The 0.22-micron filter proved significantly better than both the cigarette filter (relative risk [RR] = 18.0) and the 20-micron filter (RR = 4.5) in rendering syringes bacteria-free. CONCLUSIONS: The 15- to 20-micron syringe filter currently provided injection drug users in Switzerland does not significantly reduce contamination associated with common bacterial infections among users. Filters with pore width 1/100th as large are recommended.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for the responses.

However, it seems like things have gotten a bit off topic.
Once again, what I'm trying to establish, is which is the safer injection pratice:

1: Injecting street drugs which have been filtered through cotton only

Or
2: Injecting pharmaceutical pills which have been micron filtered.

It just seems that people are very accepting of the practice of shooting street drugs which have been cotton filtered, but condemn the practice of shooting pills that have been micron filtered.
I'm interested in establishing whether there is any basis for this discrepancy. If its the case that cotton filtered street drugs are safer to inject than micron filtered pills, then this general attitude is understandable and justified. If however, it turns out that micron filtered pills are safer to inject then cotton filtered street drugs, then I don't understand the strong bias towards injecting cotton filtered street drugs.

I know that there is no way to give a definitive answer to this question, since some street drugs will be very pure and free of contaminents, and would likely be much safer to inject, while others are filled with all sorts of crap that represent a danger.
However, I'd like to know, generally speaking, which of the 2 scenarios would represent a safer injectable (the cotton filtered street drug, or micron filtered pill). Thanks-DG
 
Jamshyd said:
People tend to forget that BL represents only 0.0001% (don't quote me on this) of the totality of drug-users.
Click to expand...

quoted for posterity. ;)
...
What the hell is stopping you from running solutions of 'street drugs' through micron filters? My apologies if your question is entirely hypothetical.

ebola
 
ebola? said:
quoted for posterity. ;)
...
What the hell is stopping you from running solutions of 'street drugs' through micron filters? My apologies if your question is entirely hypothetical.

ebola
Click to expand...

Nothing is stopping me. In fact, any street drugs I would consider shooting, I would certainly first pass them through a micron filter.

My question is an attempt to establish how safe/unsafe is the practice of shooting pills which have been properly micron filtered, and also to determine the safety of this practice relative to the safety of shooting street drugs which have only been cotton filtered.

As I said, the community of Bluelight seems to view the practice of shooting street drugs which have only been cotton filtered, as an acceptable practice from a harm reduction standpoint. It seems that injecting micron filtered pills is not viewed as acceptable, or as acceptable, in terms of harm reduction. Im wondering if there is good reason for this, or if its just a prevailing mantra that has been repeated over and over for no good reason. -DG
 
The traditional logic, here, is that street drugs that are commonly used via IV will unlikely have cuts added that would be extremely dangerous if taken intravenously, while pharmaceutical pills will commonly have pill binders that would be highly dangerous if IV'd, either by lack of attention or concerted attempts to dissuade IV use and/or defeat of time-release mechanisms. Thus, to achieve a given level of safety, so the logic goes, one would need process street drugs less than a pill-based preparation.

However, I believe that there are exceptions to be made for certain cuts in street drugs that dealers assume will be insufflated or smoked, and certain (and very rare) pills that are known to have particularly IV-prep friendly binders.

ebola
 
First of all, I don't know how to shoot oxycontin, but would like to try it. Second of all, I had to share this. I have the best buzz right now -- i snorted two xanax .2 mg and swallowed a couple of them, along with about four somas. I then snorted an oc 20. I find I don't need as many opiates when I take benzos, but just felt like doing it. Anyway, I think this is the right thread to post in. I am new to this web site and am still getting my feet wet. Hope everyone has as nice as day as I am having.
 
I did try to shoot oxycontin once, but I didn't use cotton and I don't even know what a micron filter is or where to get them. I have access to clean needles and would appreciate an answer on how to shoot oxycontin. Thank you.
 
Bluelight recommends micron filters for any injection, of course excepting vials prepared for injection.

Micron filtering does seem to be discussed more in the threads dealing with pills, but I'm sure that you have noticed that most of the discussion in OD nowadays focuses on pharmaceuticals as to opposed to street drugs, which helps explain the disparity. I know that in both of the last two cities that I lived in, pharmaceuticals dominated the scenes, and this seems to be a pretty common trend for areas that post on Bluelight.

I do think that the street drugs should be given the same advice, but I believe the total discussion on them is much less than the pharmeceutical discussion that you are comparing it to.
 
Wolfie287 said:
I did try to shoot oxycontin once, but I didn't use cotton and I don't even know what a micron filter is or where to get them. I have access to clean needles and would appreciate an answer on how to shoot oxycontin. Thank you.
Click to expand...

Come check out some of the resources we have in OD. Here's a good place to start: the IV information thread. You can post any questions you have with the concept there and someone will be sure to respond.
 
Filter the pill with sterile cotton first, then run it through a micron. Same goes for street drugs. Yes the overall yield is lower, so you may need to compensate with more drug. Your body will thank you....
 
snorted two xanax .2 mg
Click to expand...

Too late now, but if you for some reason decide to do this again, flush your nose with saline to carry said xanax to you GI tract where it can actually be absorbed.

Also, oxycodone taken orally has lightly high bioavailability than when insufflated.

ebola
 
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