Heroin Anyone else think shooting dope is safer than sniffing in terms of OD risk?

I know that this goes contrary to conventional wisdom but it certainly seems to hold true for me. Allow me to elaborate. When I shoot dope, the peak effects come on immediately thus giving me a good idea of how high I am and I know not to do any more if I am too high. With sniffing however, I find it can be more deceptive because the effects don't peak until about 10 or 15 minutes. Thus there have been when I would sniff too much dope in the interim before the peak and end up doing too much.

Now in my all years of being a heroin addict (one full year) I have never ODed to the point where I needed medical attention to survive. I usually use dope alone, so I if had ever been to that point I'd not be here writing this. However, I have definitely "done too much" and woken up an hour or two later with no idea what happened except the memory of putting a needle in my arm or sniffing a line.

But that sort of thing was pretty rare and generally for me doing too much would just consist of extreme nodding and depressed breathing often accompanied by vommitting. That happened to me FAR more frequently when I sniffed dope. Since I switched to shooting, that no longer happens and I seldom even catch a nod. Having the effects peak imediately just seems to make it easier for me to judge the proper dosage. I also prefer the rush to getting super high and nodding out.

I would not agree that IV heroin is safer in terms of OD than Insufflated heroin. You just needed to be more patient when snorting and not re-dose until you had let the dope take it's effects.

In most cases, IV caries the highest risk of OD because you don't know how pure your dope is, it varies all the time. At least in the event of OD via another ROA, you would have MAYBE enough time to seek immediate medical attention or narcan. But after you push the plunger on dope way too strong, you'll be dead in minutes in most cases.

Yeah, I don't agree with this statement. In fact I believe its quite the opposite. I mean snorting anything can easily cause you to od but usually if you wait and test out the waters before re-dosing then you should be fine.... Imo trying to find the right dose for IV use is much harder than taking bumps/lines of a substance before you find where you're happy at. Let's use heroin as an example...it would go smoking>snorting>IV for avoiding an od.

IV-ing is much more likely to cause OD, and you explained why in your original post. You get one shot, and that's all it takes. However, when snorting, it takes several minutes. Is there some reason you can't wait a few minutes before piling on more? You know it takes time to kick in. I don't understand your dilemma.

I just seemed to OD way more often when I was sniffing. I would wait 10-15 minutes for sure but somehow, it would sneak up on me. Another reason is, I tend to use less overall when I IV because I prefer using a smaller amount, having it wear off sooner, so I can shoot again and get another rush.

And another reason is that if I put too much in one shot, well, the rush is too intense and makes me itch (whereas I never had that trouble snorting enormous lines) so because of this I tend to shoot smaller amounts then I used to snort at a time. All I know is that since I switched to shooting, I;ve only ODed once whereas back when I was snorting I ODed more than 15 times. And again, by OD I don't mean needed narcan or anything, I just mean uncontrollable nodding/vommtting and or passing out.

And I don't really see how you would have a chance to call for help if you ODed snorting. Maybe if you took a MASSIVE overdose, and thus realized instantly you were in trouble and called an ambulance. But if it was just a small overdose, then it sneaks up on you and pass out without even realizing it. That is what would happen to me. All the ODs where I was consciuss enough to be worried about ODing, I was able to ride out myself without medical attention even though I had one which was quite scary where it felt like I had to force myself to breathe.

I the OPs problem maybe comes from his IV use before snorting? Or did you you come close to OD before picking up the needle?

The biggest dangers I see when it comes from snorting H is this;

1) An IV user, not getting his "rush" would sniff another line before the first one started taking effect.

2) A user that had never IVed anything would snort too much H in their first line because they were used to snorting a pill that contained far more powder once crushed and underestimated the power of the H they were snorting. You'd be surprised how many kids are snorting 10/325s and such these days.

I've never done H via any ROA, but I've done my fair share of Opana ER and other small but potent pain pills. I can tell you from first hand experience from snorting those that it IS possible to OD if you underestimate how potent those little lines are.

I think we all should be proactive, both here and in IRL when it comes to educating a naive user no matter what drug they intend on consuming or how they they plan to consume it. I know that's a lot harder IRL with all these dumb people that think they know everything. But I've seen far too many of my friends OD on stuff just because they didn't know any better and were given bad advice.

Stay safe everyone!

I think it's an interesting point to bring up, as us IV drug users are going to assume we need "much more" if we're not shooting. But if you got the same bag of dope, and you have the option of IV and insufflation- it's the needle that has a better chance of ending your life, no doubt.

burn out said:

And I don't really see how you would have a chance to call for help if you ODed snorting. Maybe if you took a MASSIVE overdose, and thus realized instantly you were in trouble and called an ambulance. But if it was just a small overdose, then it sneaks up on you and pass out without even realizing it. That is what would happen to me. All the ODs where I was consciuss enough to be worried about ODing, I was able to ride out myself without medical attention even though I had one which was quite scary where it felt like I had to force myself to breathe.

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And I don't see how you would have a chance to call for help if you overdosed by IVing and didn't even get a chance to pull the needle out of your arm before falling out. When people say how they OD'd when IVing they usually just black out a minute after doing their shot. There's no way you can do anything to help yourself if you are unconscious.

If someone does a 4 bag shot and gets a stronger batch, they would possibly overdose, and if so, it would happen immediately. If someone is sniffing that same dose, after sniffing each bag they would notice it's stronger and stop doing more.

You have more time to get help if you think you sniffed too much dope. If you sniffed a few bags and then sniffed a few more and noticed its hitting you pretty hard already before the other bags are starting to hit you, you can call for help.

Ive never done neither, not even smoked heroin but from everything I have ever read & from friends experiences, I would definitely say the needle is more dangerous & has a higher chance of overdosing............

If people educate themselves on the product they want to ingest, they have a less chance of getting in trouble from overdosing. anyone can get great advice on this site. Thing is, if you snort 30mg IR Oxycodone pills in 1 or 2 snorts, the same can not be done with Opana, its just common sense & illogical after reading & educating yourself.

If one pill is stronger than the previous you were used to, then its obvious you will need to use a lot less to achieve a nice high that you use to get from the previous pills that were not as potent.

Anyone wanting to snort fat lines because they think its cool or thats what they are used to need proper education in pain pills, heroin, etc.........

I agree that IV is more dangerous than snorted, but couldn't someone who IVs push the plunger down part way to gauge the strength of the bag, then push down more if they're not high enough. I've only IVed once, and i remember it hit almost instantly. In Britain I think it's recommended for IV diamorphine(pharmacutical heroin) to IV it slowly over five minutes.

^Thing is THC what you're feeling is the initial intensity of Heroin hitting the brain all at once and beginning immediately to convert to properly active metabolite 6-MAM first, then Morphine further, but the full conversion one stage to the next takes many minutes. If you shoot something way over the line then sure, you'll be out in seconds and your breathing will stop within a minute, but a borderline dose can creep up on you as metabolisation goes on and CNS depression becomes more pronounced in a way that's almost self-sustaining, the deeper you go the less you having by way of an effect counter. Only way to gauge the effects of a shot are to give it maybe half an hour, see where you're at and adjust any redose accordingly if needed as best guess to get you where you want to be.

Znegative said:

I think it's an interesting point to bring up, as us IV drug users are going to assume we need "much more" if we're not shooting. But if you got the same bag of dope, and you have the option of IV and insufflation- it's the needle that has a better chance of ending your life, no doubt.

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Absolutely. No question about it. Not trying to lessen the risks of insufflating in any way, cos you can just as easily end up dead if you get the dosing wrong but even with proper adjustments to try and get somewhere roughly equivalent with insufflated v. IV doses it's IV that will put more in the ground. IV is not forgiving of mistakes, nor does it give you time to become aware that you've done too much and you're sliding towards OD territory, hopefully slowly enough as to be able to do something about it even if that's only managing to dial for paramedics with Naloxone before you go under.


BurnOut, the switch from insufflating to IV has massively ramped up your tolerance so something equivalent to borderline OD when insufflating may not be anywhere near OD territory after a long enough period shooting. Sounds like you were redosing before you had time to gauge effects of the initial insufflated dose properly, pushing you over the edge into OD territory but that's all about you and the way you were using, not that IVing is somehow safer because you're borderline ODing less simply because 1) your brain's adjusted to coping with the harder immediate slam, 2) you're probably treating IVed doses with a bit more caution and respect that you offered insufflated ones, and 3) you'll probably wait out the initial rush and give it some time to settle in before being arsed enough to start on prepping another shot and look for a vein etc if you need to.