Yeah I occasionally get a histamine reaction from heroin, I've found that more often than not if I get a moderate reaction from a batch then it's usually quite good gear. Gear that doesn't give me a reaction can still be just as good but I find if the rush is quite 'prickly' then the gear usually has good legs and I get quite a nice long nod on it.
I too have gotten a histamine reaction from heroin a good number of times over the years. The intensity of the "prickly" rush has varied from just barely noticeable to quite pronounced, though it has never been comparable to the kind of intense pins and needles reaction that I experience from a shot of morphine sulfate. I also agree with cassandragemini that usually with this type of gear it has really long legs, is very noddy, can be quite "sickly" (nausea) and often leaves me mildly irritable for no reason (I also get really irritable from oxycodone HCl, and also morphine sulfate but to a lesser degree).[/QUOTE]
it's most likely to do with a higher ratio of morphine (incomplete acetylation) than usual in the end synthesis.
My girl and I, as well as a few of our drug friends refer to this kind of gear as "morphy". The heroin that I have been scoring for the last few weeks has had these "morphy" characteristics. My experience tells me that it is most definitely home bake: diacetylmorphine (heroin) produced via the acetylation of morphine to diacetylmorphine using acetic anhydride. It is a moist sticky powder that comes in a clump, mixes up clear with a slight yellow tinge when drawn up, and absolutely reeks of vinegar, which is the acetic anhydride left over from the conversion.
tentram is right about it containing a higher ratio of morphine to diacetylmorphine, and it also contains unusually high levels of 3-O-monoacetylmorphine specifically due to the incomplete acetylation of morphine to diacetylmorphine. The levels of 3-O-monoacetylmorphine are much greater than 6-O-monoacetylmorphine as well. The 3-MAM, morphine and 6-MAM (to a lesser degree) would be responsible for the morphine like characteristics that I mentioned before.
The conversion rate is nowhere near 100% when using this method to produce heroin (more like 60% if the person knows what they are doing). With the morphine placed in a spoon, enough acetic anhydride is added to moisten the morphine, it is then covered with tin foil and then placed in the oven to acetylate.
While home bake isn't anywhere near as common in Australia as it is in New Zealand for instance, it is certainly around. It is pretty popular in Queensland, if my memory serves me correctly - and is primarily produced from morphine tablets like MS-Contin 100mg that are cleaned up with solvents to get rid of the binders and fillers in the pills. But it is also produced from codeine phosphate which is isolated from codeine tablets like Nurofen Plus, Panafen Plus, etc (the same ones we use for CWE's

), then cleaned up and reacted with pyridine HCl to produce morphine powder and then the morphine powder is treated the exact same way with acetic anhydride to yield diacetylmorphine and the other aforementioned morphine analogues.
I've been using on and off again for the last week. I was pretty much clean but it being my birthday recently I convinced myself that having a birthday shot would be ok but of course one shot is never one shot, I always end up using for a few days before my conscience gets the better of me and I lay off again. Fool. I'm starting to consider if going back on a low dose of bupe might be the best thing for me to do, staying clean is proving to be much more difficult than I had hoped it would be, I really don't want to go back on maintainence but I think it might be the lesser of two evils.
cassandragemini: I can relate to what you're saying 110 percent as I am in exactly the same boat. I jumped off 32mg/daily Subutex habit around 6-7 months ago and ever since then I have been dancing between hanging out and getting stoned. My problem is the same as yours, as soon as I get paid I will just keep buying heroin until I run out of money and then I have to get resourceful and try and keep from getting sick by sourcing bupe off the street or scrounging together enough money for codeine or poppy seeds. I totally understand what you mean about not wanting to go back on maintenance, it was the worst decision I ever made to start dosing buprenorphine daily (I lost like 4 years of my life in an emotionless fog of numbness, as did my girl - she was on the exact same dose as me). But like you, I have considered it as I just cannot keep living like this, it's really growing thin. I picked up 50 diazepam tablets and 25 oxazepam tablets and 2mg of Suboxone film yesterday to help make the next 8 days easier, as I have no money until next Tuesday (so no hope of scoring any hammer, considering I already owe my dealer for a handful of packets that I got on credit). So hopefully after 8 days I won't be feeling too bad and I'm gonna try and stay off it for a while, as I really just want to be able to use occasionally and not wake up sick every fucking morning!
Footsy the codeine high/heroin withdrawal is a weird feeling eh, it's really unsatisfying and i find the mix quite unpleasant but its certainly better than straight withdrawal. Its made me realise how shit an opiate codeine is - or how good heroin is. When I have codeine during h withdrawal I get the histamine reaction - that weird sort of hot sensation that only codeine gives you and i feel kind of intoxicated but still have the feeling of malaise and the cramps from the heroin. Its strange feeling withdrawal but still getting some slight euphoria from the codeine, i think it could be evidence that quite a lot of the psychoactive effects from codeine are from opiates other than the metabolised morphine, in fact I think the majority of the high from codeine can be attributed to the codeine and other metabolites rather than the metabolised morphine - morphine (at the right dose) should completely negate heroin withdrawal seeing heroin deactylates into morphine in vivo. Obviously the amount of morphine metabolised from a cwe is going to be low though. I assume that codeine binds mostly to the mu receptor as well? It's food for thought. And yeah pst doesn't fill the gap well either, if I've been doing pst for a while I find I quite enjoy the high but after a good binge on h it leaves me wanting more. After about 2 days I start to feel fine on pst again but its that two days that make me want to keep riding the gravy train for as long as i possibly can.
I find the same thing as you and footsy with codeine, and personally prefer poppy seed tea. I find my usual dose to stave away the sickness of codeine (384mg) lasts about 4 hours and after about 6 hours I start getting stretchy legs, sneezing, diarrhea and a runny nose - but like you said even when it does kick in, I don't feel 100% better. Not at all.
The following bit of reading might shed some light on why a substantial dose of codeine doesn't completely eliminate the withdrawal symptoms when coming off heroin. It seems that 50-70% of the codeine is converted to codeine-6-glucuronide and then in turn 60% of the morphine is converted to morphine-3-glucuronide and though they both have similar affinity for the u and mu opioid receptors I doubt they would be as effective as morphine binding exclusively to the mu receptor:
The principal pathways for metabolism of codeine occur in the liver, although some metabolism occurs in the intestine and brain. Approximately 50-70% of codeine is converted to codeine-6-glucuronide by UGT2B7. Codeine-6-glucuronide has a similar affinity to codeine for the mu opioid receptor, coded for by the OPRM1 gene. Approximately 10-15% of codeine is N-demethylated to norcodeine by CYP3A4. Norcodeine also has a similar affinity to codeine for the mu opioid receptor. Between 0-15% of codeine is O-demethylated to morphine, the most active metabolite, which has 200 fold greater affinity for the mu opioid receptor compared to codeine. This metabolic reaction is performed by CYP2D6.
Approximately 60% of morphine is glucuronidated to morphine-3-glucuronide (M3G) while 5-10% is glucuronidated to morphine-6-glucuronide (M6G). These reactions are principally catalyzed by UGT2B7 in the liver. UGT1A1 may have a minor role in the formation of M3G , and UGT1A1 and UGT1A8 are capable of catalyzing the formation of M6G in vitro and so contribute to this pathway, although UGT1A8 is minimally expressed in liver and so is not depicted here. M6G has a higher affinity for OPRM1 than morphine and M3G and so the ratio of morphine to M6G is considered an important indicator of analgesic effect.
A.
