The 'fixing with toilet water' thing

[BlueSaffron]

I just... don't understand. :/ I've seen people do it a couple times in real life, but mostly it's been in documentaries about heroin addicts on the east coast, although I'm not saying it can't happen anywhere.

I was an IV user of opiates & speedballs for two years. I went through my veins pretty quick, my arms were a mess by the end, I've used a thread from my sock as a cotton, I once used iced tea instead of water by mistake to break down my H and it was all I had, so I shot it anyway. I know how it is when you're a junkie, I really do.

But... but.. using water from the toilet BOWL? I mean, AIDS, hepatitis, and god knows what else could be in that bowl and even if there's nothing infectious it's still so disgusting to me I can't even comprehend it.

I mean... tell me I'm not alone here? Or have other people done this? If you have, help me understand? Cos as sick and desperate as I have been in my life, I just could never go there.

 

[_DankOpiAmp_]

Well they are so desperate that I figure they think if it looks clear it's good enough. Lol, I guess if you boiled your shit long enough it would probably kill the germs but god damn... It does seem to be a common practice among uber junkies.

 

[Tommyboy]

I never understood that either, and have actually been wondering about that lately too. I use tap water so I just don't get why someone would use toilet water when any bathroom is going to have a sink with water too. Even fast food chains give water for free, so if you can't use their bathroom you can at least get free water from them.

 

[SirTophamHat]

you use the tank water, not the bowl water. at least that's what i've been led to believe (and i'm not so sure there is much of a difference)

 

[ohshea]

NOT that Im justifying, just adding my perspective....
Reasons people justify using bowl water is when there is a line in the bathroom and you forgot to grab water. It would look strange to grab a capful of water and run back in the stall with people standing there, and youre trying to rush so youre just like fuck it.

Similar to this situation would be you have your gear, dope in spoon, etc and realize you forgot the damn water. You can either set the spoon down and run out off the stall and hope someone coming in doesnt go to your stall w your shit in there. Or you could risk your dope flying away while going out there to get water. Or you can use toilet water. Most public toilets dont have a back tank, so flush and use water flowing down.

The third would be just pure laziness and recklessness.

Like I said these arent GOOD reasons, but seem sound at the time.

 

[verso]

It's just one of those things, the junkie stereotype, that people like to perpetuate and then junkies themselves begin perpetuating almost subconsciously. We knew a girl who, rest in peace, cooked her shots, like, with a bent spoon and the whole nine. We live on the east coast, and the dope she was getting was east coast powder, the kind that need not be cooked in a spoon. Where did she get that from? It's the junkie stereotype, man... it's the idea that people have in their minds of a heroin addict, a heroin user, and the users themselves begin to perpetuate the stereotype unknowingly.

I don't think that very many heroin addicts ever used water from the toilet (or puddles, that's another one...) until one day an addict did it, and they put it in some documentary or something, a book or whatever, and then, quicker than you can say "hepatitis," you've got a slew of people going on about how they know so-and-so who was hooked on dope and would use toilet water and blah blah blah.

I hate the idea of the junkie stereotype, and it really makes me angry -- makes me angry when people believe in it, and makes me angry when users themselves do something to perpetuate it because, hell, if you've got users perpetuating the stereotype, then it almost ceases to be a stereotype at all and becomes actual reality. Still, for the most part, I think that the idea of the dirty, unkempt, sickly heroin addict "junkie" pan-handling for money, heating their shots up in a bent, blackened spoon, mixing up with either toilet water or puddle water, tying off with their belts and shooting up in a gas station bathroom... I think that's still a largely unfounded stereotype.

 

[phenethylo J]

NOT that Im justifying, just adding my perspective....
Reasons people justify using bowl water is when there is a line in the bathroom and you forgot to grab water. It would look strange to grab a capful of water and run back in the stall with people standing there, and youre trying to rush so youre just like fuck it.

Similar to this situation would be you have your gear, dope in spoon, etc and realize you forgot the damn water. You can either set the spoon down and run out off the stall and hope someone coming in doesnt go to your stall w your shit in there. Or you could risk your dope flying away while going out there to get water. Or you can use toilet water. Most public toilets dont have a back tank, so flush and use water flowing down.

The third would be just pure laziness and recklessness.

Like I said these arent GOOD reasons, but seem sound at the time.

That's why you use a handicap stall to fix; they have a sink inside of them.

 

[missmeyet?]

I never understood that either, and have actually been wondering about that lately too. I use tap water so I just don't get why someone would use toilet water when any bathroom is going to have a sink with water too. Even fast food chains give water for free, so if you can't use their bathroom you can at least get free water from them.

No kidding..I said something similar once. Someone here on BL a couple of months ago said something like this...but I think it was he had to use a mud puddle. I asked/wondered how if he is somewhere where he has access to the internet how would you not have access to water somehow (bathroom sink at least!!). I just don't get it.

And even if you use the tank water that is still nasty. I don't even like using water from a tap/faucet (I only use normal sterile saline...cheap can of it in first aid section at Walmart or any pharmacy..3 or 4 bucks for a can that has like 180 ml/ccs in it). I mean i guess you do what you got to do I just don't see how if you are somewhere where you have access to the internet you don't have access to plumbing!

'

 

[Mr.Scagnattie]

A lot of junkies, especially the ones that have become homeless and are on the street, just have gotten beaten down to the point where they just stop caring anymore about anything. Personal hygiene, safe practices, it all goes out the window. I used to live by a park in Manhattan that a lot of junkies hung out in.. there was a needle exchange literally 3 blocks away, but they'd literally pick rigs up off the floor or from in the trash can instead.

I've seen it happen to a lot of addicts, especially ones who have already contracted some diseases, where they just loose all care and it literally becomes too much effort to go get a water bottle, so they'll just use toilet water.

 

[InvisibleEye]

I used to live by a park in Manhattan that a lot of junkies hung out in.. there was a needle exchange literally 3 blocks away, but they'd literally pick rigs up off the floor or from in the trash can instead.

That's true. Here in Montreal social workers take walks every day in districts where addicts hang out, and distribute safe shooting kits (and clean water) themselves. That definitely helps reaching addicts that would otherwise not bother to visit the needle exchange. The main needle exchange downtown is literally 3 minutes away from the 'action' but still, some IV users will not go there.
Unfortunately needle exchange programs are constantly threatened by budget cuts and legal action, and not all needle exchanges can afford to hire more social workers for field work...

 

[Bob Loblaw]

I've never done this, and I don't plan on continuing to shoot dope, but knowing me, I bet I could find a way to justify it if I got so bad enough. I've done enough moronic shit already ;\.

 

[95Land]

A lot of junkies, especially the ones that have become homeless and are on the street, just have gotten beaten down to the point where they just stop caring anymore about anything. Personal hygiene, safe practices, it all goes out the window. I used to live by a park in Manhattan that a lot of junkies hung out in.. there was a needle exchange literally 3 blocks away, but they'd literally pick rigs up off the floor or from in the trash can instead.

I've seen it happen to a lot of addicts, especially ones who have already contracted some diseases, where they just loose all care and it literally becomes too much effort to go get a water bottle, so they'll just use toilet water.

^This.
I completely get what Verso's saying but there is a subset of junkies that have officially said, "Fuck it." A all encompassing attitude of "I do not give a fuck." It's admirable in a way, but pretty disgusting.
I would hazard to guess that there's more junkies in our grouping. The semi-functional, job holding, junkie. But I don't know.

I had a GF that's from Kentucky and they get some kind of bastardized version of scramble.
She came up here, I got her powder and she would NOT STOP COOKING IT. "You don't need to heat it!!!!!" I gave up.

 

[verso]

^This.
I completely get what Verso's saying but there is a subset of junkies that have officially said, "Fuck it." A all encompassing attitude of "I do not give a fuck." It's admirable in a way, but pretty disgusting.
I would hazard to guess that there's more junkies in our grouping. The semi-functional, job holding, junkie. But I don't know.

It's true, and that's sort of why I alluded to those junkies who are unknowingly fulfilling the junkie stereotype every time they do something cliche like using toilet water, tying off with a belt, the belt between their teeth, fucking... everything else... cooking up with east coast dope, the spoon and the lighter and everything. It's so stupid... especially when there's got to be a cleaner, safer way of doing it. Water? Go to any fast food chain -- a McDonalds or Burger King, Taco Bell... whatever! If we're about to pick up, and we've forgotten to bring water with us, well, shit, we'll hit one of the dozens and dozens of fast food chains on our way to see our dealer.

 

[95Land]

^I don't think we're in disagreement. I feel like we're disagreeing but I hear what you're saying.
My point, I suppose, is the old, "is it a stereotype if there's truth in it?" IOW's, what came first? The junkie in a flop house with a burnt spoon and a cup of dirty water? Or the belief that you need to have a burnt spoon in order to be a proper junkie? It's the chicken and the egg!
I don't even know what I'm talking about....

You're very much right that it's not hard to find tap water. I go for Dunkin' Donuts or Subway bathrooms. Locking doors and a sink.

 

[VerbalTruist]

I never did it. I saw a person do it once and I was fucking horrified. He drank from a BOTTLE of water and drew from a public toilet. I was shocked. When I asked him later about it his response was this, "They clean them everyday and I had JUST drank out of the bottle." So...

 

[ohshea]

Stereotypes come from truth....these people are out there in plenty. A lot of it is desperation, when I was in my I dont give a fuck days I would cook with snow or rain water because I was living in my car and wanted to fix right then and there, waiting five more minutes seem ludicrous. Its pure laziness and not having any more fucks left to give.

 

[Mr.Scagnattie]

I'm not going to lie, I have been at the point where I've done some pretty nasty shit before. It's easy to say you never would when you're still able to hold together some semblance of a life.. but when it all literally falls apart and you end up on the street or something with literally nothing and nobody, there's this switch that sometimes just gets flipped off and you really turn into a different person.

Ask any homeless street urchin you see if they ever thought in a million years they'd be out doing that kind of shit. You'd be surprised how many of those guys were literally living in a 4 bedroom house with a job and a car not 2 or 3 years ago... then, something happens, (or multiple somethings) and they loose it all.

You get beaten down and battered to a point where you just shut it all off. It's very scary what you're capable of once that happens.

 

[Tryptamino]

wow...and i get sketched out when I use bottled water...

I was taught only to use the sweetwater from the needle exchange, but this is a little bewildering to me.

 

[BlueSaffron]

I'm glad most people don't do it, although I do understand that you can get to a point of "fuck it". I guess I just never said "fuck it" to that degree. I don't care how sick I was, I could never use toilet water. Sometimes you get set up and realize you're missing something. It sucks, but you just have to go back out and get it.

I guess if you have a terminal disease and figure your life is over anyway... that's the only reason that makes any sense to me.

 

[verso]

Oh I can definitely understand one's being so down and out so as to take on and fully own that "fuck it" attitude and approach to life. But I just can't imagine one's opting for toilet water when there seems to be, at least by my estimation, cleaner sources of water that are equally as free of charge. I mean, most public bathrooms have sinks, no? And if you're in a public bathroom, then maybe you're in a fast food restaurant, most of which, in my experience, have always provided me with free ice water before.

(shrugs) But, then again, I can also understand that compulsion, that need to get the drugs into your body as quickly as humanly possible. Who wants to stand in line at the Burger King with the high school stoner kid taking -- and screwing up -- every person's order before yours when you're sick as a dog and all you need is some of their free god damned water? Yeah, kind of sucks...

But who am I to judge? If you're sick, and you're OK with toilet water... then, toilet water it is, I guess!