Drug Injection - Procedure

Procedure

The drug, usually in a powder or crystal form (though not always), is dissolved in water, normally in a spoon, tin, bottoms of soda cans, or another metal container. Cylindrical metal containers sometimes called 'cookers' are provided by needle exchanges. Users draw the required amount of water into a syringe and squirt this over the drugs. The solution is then mixed and heated from below if necessary. Heating is used mainly with heroin, (though not always, depending on the type of heroin) but is also often used when time-released pharmaceutical drugs such as MSContin (morphine) or OxyContin (oxycodone) are injected to better separate the drug from the waxy filler; amphetamines should never be heated. Cocaine HCl (powdered cocaine) dissolves quite easily without heat. Heroin prepared for the European market is insoluble in water and usually requires the addition of an acid such as citric acid or ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) powder to dissolve the drug. Due to the dangers from using lemon juice or vinegar to acidify the solution, packets of citric acid and Vitamin C powder are available at needle exchanges in Europe. In the U.S., vinegar and lemon juice are used to shoot crack cocaine. The acids convert the water-insoluble cocaine base in crack to a cocaine salt (cocaine acetate or cocaine citrate here) which is water soluble (like cocaine hydrochloride). Once the drugs are dissolved, a small syringe, usually 0.5 or 1 cc, is used to draw the solution through a filter, usually cotton from a cigarette filter or cotton swab (cotton bud). 'Tuberculin' syringes and types of syringes used to inject insulin are commonly used. Commonly used syringes usually have a built-in 28 gauge (or thereabouts) needle typically 1/2 or 5/8 inches long. The preferred injection site is the crook of the elbow (i.e., the Median cubital vein), on the user's non-writing hand. Other users opt to use the Basilic vein; While it may be easier to "hit", caution must be exercised as two nerves run parallel to the vein increasing the chance of nerve damage, as well as the chance of an arterial "nick".