Barbelith Underground > Conversation

Um, I haven't read the whole of this thread only skimmed it as am at work so apologies if I repeat anything anyone says...

Heroin...cost = usually sold in £10 bags. That is quite enough for someone who wants to try it and infact depending on the purity and how you actually choose to ingest it can be enough to overdose.

What's it like? I have done heroin once and opium tea several times. Opiates are painkillers. In the widest sense of the word. They take all your pain away both mental and physical. Its rather akin to being surrounded in warm cotton wool. You have no particular desire to do anything other then sit and be comfy and you tend to lucid dream (or at least that's the best way I can describe it)

Having worked with many addicts and listening to their backgrounds as part of the counselling side of things it is very easy to see why heroin is so seductive. People who have suffered tremendous pain/abuse or loss in their lives find that heroin makes all that go away and that is a terribly wonderful thing for some people.

If you try heroin once you are not going to get addicted. As to whether its a good idea, you are probably the best judge of that. Are you someone with an addictive personality? Do you always overdo/abuse things you enjoy? These are things worth bearing in mind.

The other thing to bear closely in mind is that its not a drug to go out on. The first time you do it you will be extremely dopey if not unconcious for a bit. You will also throw up. So don't eat anything before hand. Depending on the strength again, heroin and opium tend to make you itch hence you frequently see addicts scratching repeatedly at themselves without really being aware, sometimes even to the point of bleeding. In the same way since you are unlikley to be aware of your surroundings I'd have someone you trust, who is straight with you to keep an eye on you. Someone I know fell asleep against a radiator when he was 'skagged' out and ended up with a blister the size of a small football on his arm and had to go to casualty..not pretty!

Heroin differs from many other illegal substances in that (like crack) it is one of the few that is actually physically addictive as well as mentally. This is what makes it so dangerous and why people have such a knee jerk reaction to it. Much as I am no big fan of the drug having lost one ex to it and having spent many years walking another ex through his recovery from the addiction, I would say that its the fact that heroin is blackmarket and therefore very hard to guarantee how strong it is from hit to hit which kills people not the actual heroin.

Most addicts die from overdoses. Its very easy to overdose when you are injecting it. If you want to try heroin I suggest you smoke it or even better find a whole bunch of opium poppies, collect the heads when still green and after flower has died. Slit the heads and then boil them up in some water until liquid turns green/brown colour. Sieve it and drink it. Tastes like pond but works very well. Strength depends on how many heads you use.
It will makes you puke

I am really not an advocate of injecting. Intravenous drug users set themselves up for all sorts of problems other then overdosing and hygiene is something that has a tendency to get forgotten. There is also a quite complicated 'ritual' to preparing heroin to inject so unless you know people who know what they are doing and acces to clean needles etc I would give it a miss. Quite apart from the fact the smell of burning lemon juice is something ANYONE can live without smelling!

If you REALLY must try it then attend a Needle Exchange and get a drug users pack which includes clean needles, antispetic swabs, condoms and a 'sharp' safe so that the used needles can be safely disposed of.

I may be sounding like I am being encouraging but I have long learnt the hard lesson that people will do what they want regardless of what you say. I have therefore taken the view that its best to provide people with as much info as possible and let them make their own minds up. If your going to do it know the facts.

As a final aside I would say that heroin makes people into the most unattractive, passively aggressive, slurring, sweating and generally unplesant people you will ever come across. Pupils shrink or 'pin out' so the person apprears to have huge vacant eyes and it is a simple fact that heroin addicts will literaly sell their grandmothers to get the cash for their next hit. But then you cannot trust an addict full stop and that's not exclusive to heroin users.

While most drugs damage people physically, in my experience heroin (and the opiate family) is the one drug which kills people's souls. Sounds melodramatic but that's what I have found. As far helping creativity you are better off hitting yourself repeatedly on the head with a heavy object.

Be careful it you must play with this drug but hey if you do want to try it then go for broke.

What about Heroin?