bwanajzj
Bluelighter
There are a lot of factors that come into play in terms of pH adjustment of a solution of brown heroin (a.k.a. heroin no. 3 or brown Afghan, and so on, basically the base form of diacetylmorphine, which needs acid to dissolve in water, if one wants to use the substance for intravenous injection).
Life would be easier if someone had made a whole batch of heroin no. 4 instead (the HCl salt of diacetylmorphine, thus water soluble), for those that like to IV, but the smokers around the world seem to dictate the amount of China white and the likes on the market in any given place. I also think that producers can make more money off of brown heroin, than white, due to the loss of kilos upon conversion from base to salt (correct me if I am wrong), plus it requires restricted chemicals and so on... also why white is usually more expensive and less amounts are required. So the brown hits the market, and needs to settle both the IV and the smoker and the sniffer and the pluggers needs... and so instead, many are left forced to use acid to dissolve their DOC, and slam it, and I myself have been in that situation. Luckily I had pH strips, so I could check the pH of my solution before and after cooking. This was A) to make sure I didn't inject some motherfucking-acidic 0.5 pH shit, or B) some neutral solution where only some heroin might get dissolved.
I have made a study using three different types of street heroin, in its base form, a total of 5 shots.
Heroin type 1 was a light tan colour but became dark red/brownish upon cooking. It was of decent quality, around 40% purity I would say.
Heroin type 2 was a darker tan/brown colour, almost with a reddish tint. This heroin was complete crap, maybe 30% purity at best.
Heroin type 3 was a light tan color, but was not very dark red/brownish when cooked. This heroin was the best of all three, and an estimated 60% purity.
For the sake of ease, let's assume that each shot was about 50% pure, and that I used around 100 mg of heroin no. 3 for each shot, which was indeed the average amount per shot. Mind you I might be opiate tolerant, as I am on buprenorphine, but all shots were taken after a 3-day break from buprenorphine, and no buprenorphine was taken during the period I had the 5 shots of heroin. The whole affair was spread over a few days. I would recommend much lower doses for opiate naive people. So do not use this thread as a dosage guideline. It's about the ratio of acid:dope:water.
When Google and forum searching, the suggested amount is 1:10 citric acid to heroin no. 3. So the first time round, I used around 10 mg of crystalline citric acid (eyeballed - divided into tiny mounds from a 100 mg satchet). A little less was used for shot no. 2 and 3 (probably about 6-8 mg), while even less was used for shot 4 and 5 (somewhere around 5-6 mg). It seemed to have little effect on pH, but no effect on heroin dissolution. So the less one uses, the better, but there must be some optimal pH to aim for, which is why I started this thread, to find out.
Heroin type 1 was used for shot 1 and 3, and type 2 for shot 2, and type 3 for shot 4 and 5.
Another important element, is the amount of water used, as this will also alter the amount of effect the acid has on the dissolution of the diacetylmorphine base. I used 1.5 ml of bacteriostatic water (single-use plastic vials, 0.9% NaCl). The same amount of water was used for each shot.
I read somewhere, that the optimal pH for dissolution of all solids, based on some university study of some 60% pure - or thereabouts - street heroin, was a pH between 5 and 6. So that is why I tried using less for the later shots. However, I kept hitting about the same pH, regardless whether it was 5, 7 or 10 mg of citric acid I used. I guess the point is that the advised amount of citric acid needed is way too high when shooting street heroin that has been diluted, and it also depends on the amount of water used. I have attached some pics of my pH strips, for your eyes to judge...
The idea of this thread is to spawn some scientific input in terms of the optimal amount of citric and/or other acids to use to dissolve brown heroin for IV use. Because I would really love to know exactly how pure my heroin is and exactly how much acid and water to use to hit just the right pH, without having to use my precious heroin solution for dripping on pH strips and to not ever get a collapsed vein or the likes due to too much acid (it was hell just copping the heroin in the first place, so any other complications just add to all the troubles)... and sadly I don't have a scale that works, but over the years, the eyeballing has gotten pretty good. And either way, so long as I can't find any concrete information on the matter (I haven't put tens of hours into researching it, but enough time to know that the info is not easy to find, and there is a lot of debate, and a lot of crap dope out there). And when one wants to do something the 'right' way, it's damn annoying that there isn't someone out there who has found the 'right' answer already, so that one has to go about it by one self... and with that in mind, wasting shots due to too much or too little acid is a pain in the ass too... anyways, I'm not a heavy user, and I am planning on never really using again after my buprenorphine plan pans out, but if the time comes around, it would be so wonderful to be able to do it just right, by the book, and get the best results and minimal harm.
Here are some pics of the pH of shot 1-5 (tested before and after heating/cooking - note that the cooking process does little to the pH. Which means that the acid dissolves fast into water at room temperature, and that double-checking the pH after cooking is a waste of time...):
Click the show button below to see pics of the pH results that I got from testing my mixtures.
EDIT: Pictures no longer available. But there was little difference in the colour of the pH strips from the different tests. Much like there is little differece in pH of tested solutions in the following video about heroin and citric acid, where they first add the right amount and then add a whole sachet, from the producers of citric acid sachets found in UK/European needle exchanges and elsewhere.
Video: how much citric? - the citric/heroin reaction
Life would be easier if someone had made a whole batch of heroin no. 4 instead (the HCl salt of diacetylmorphine, thus water soluble), for those that like to IV, but the smokers around the world seem to dictate the amount of China white and the likes on the market in any given place. I also think that producers can make more money off of brown heroin, than white, due to the loss of kilos upon conversion from base to salt (correct me if I am wrong), plus it requires restricted chemicals and so on... also why white is usually more expensive and less amounts are required. So the brown hits the market, and needs to settle both the IV and the smoker and the sniffer and the pluggers needs... and so instead, many are left forced to use acid to dissolve their DOC, and slam it, and I myself have been in that situation. Luckily I had pH strips, so I could check the pH of my solution before and after cooking. This was A) to make sure I didn't inject some motherfucking-acidic 0.5 pH shit, or B) some neutral solution where only some heroin might get dissolved.
I have made a study using three different types of street heroin, in its base form, a total of 5 shots.
Heroin type 1 was a light tan colour but became dark red/brownish upon cooking. It was of decent quality, around 40% purity I would say.
Heroin type 2 was a darker tan/brown colour, almost with a reddish tint. This heroin was complete crap, maybe 30% purity at best.
Heroin type 3 was a light tan color, but was not very dark red/brownish when cooked. This heroin was the best of all three, and an estimated 60% purity.
For the sake of ease, let's assume that each shot was about 50% pure, and that I used around 100 mg of heroin no. 3 for each shot, which was indeed the average amount per shot. Mind you I might be opiate tolerant, as I am on buprenorphine, but all shots were taken after a 3-day break from buprenorphine, and no buprenorphine was taken during the period I had the 5 shots of heroin. The whole affair was spread over a few days. I would recommend much lower doses for opiate naive people. So do not use this thread as a dosage guideline. It's about the ratio of acid:dope:water.
When Google and forum searching, the suggested amount is 1:10 citric acid to heroin no. 3. So the first time round, I used around 10 mg of crystalline citric acid (eyeballed - divided into tiny mounds from a 100 mg satchet). A little less was used for shot no. 2 and 3 (probably about 6-8 mg), while even less was used for shot 4 and 5 (somewhere around 5-6 mg). It seemed to have little effect on pH, but no effect on heroin dissolution. So the less one uses, the better, but there must be some optimal pH to aim for, which is why I started this thread, to find out.
Heroin type 1 was used for shot 1 and 3, and type 2 for shot 2, and type 3 for shot 4 and 5.
Another important element, is the amount of water used, as this will also alter the amount of effect the acid has on the dissolution of the diacetylmorphine base. I used 1.5 ml of bacteriostatic water (single-use plastic vials, 0.9% NaCl). The same amount of water was used for each shot.
I read somewhere, that the optimal pH for dissolution of all solids, based on some university study of some 60% pure - or thereabouts - street heroin, was a pH between 5 and 6. So that is why I tried using less for the later shots. However, I kept hitting about the same pH, regardless whether it was 5, 7 or 10 mg of citric acid I used. I guess the point is that the advised amount of citric acid needed is way too high when shooting street heroin that has been diluted, and it also depends on the amount of water used. I have attached some pics of my pH strips, for your eyes to judge...
The idea of this thread is to spawn some scientific input in terms of the optimal amount of citric and/or other acids to use to dissolve brown heroin for IV use. Because I would really love to know exactly how pure my heroin is and exactly how much acid and water to use to hit just the right pH, without having to use my precious heroin solution for dripping on pH strips and to not ever get a collapsed vein or the likes due to too much acid (it was hell just copping the heroin in the first place, so any other complications just add to all the troubles)... and sadly I don't have a scale that works, but over the years, the eyeballing has gotten pretty good. And either way, so long as I can't find any concrete information on the matter (I haven't put tens of hours into researching it, but enough time to know that the info is not easy to find, and there is a lot of debate, and a lot of crap dope out there). And when one wants to do something the 'right' way, it's damn annoying that there isn't someone out there who has found the 'right' answer already, so that one has to go about it by one self... and with that in mind, wasting shots due to too much or too little acid is a pain in the ass too... anyways, I'm not a heavy user, and I am planning on never really using again after my buprenorphine plan pans out, but if the time comes around, it would be so wonderful to be able to do it just right, by the book, and get the best results and minimal harm.
Here are some pics of the pH of shot 1-5 (tested before and after heating/cooking - note that the cooking process does little to the pH. Which means that the acid dissolves fast into water at room temperature, and that double-checking the pH after cooking is a waste of time...):
Click the show button below to see pics of the pH results that I got from testing my mixtures.
EDIT: Pictures no longer available. But there was little difference in the colour of the pH strips from the different tests. Much like there is little differece in pH of tested solutions in the following video about heroin and citric acid, where they first add the right amount and then add a whole sachet, from the producers of citric acid sachets found in UK/European needle exchanges and elsewhere.
Video: how much citric? - the citric/heroin reaction
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