The Thrill of the Steel

Let's assume we've already prepped our taste (another tale for another time) and it's in the delivery mechanism of our choosing all ready to go. Anywhere between thirty and seventy lines is a good amount using the gauge off the side of a one ml tuermo syringe. Your pulse quickens, excitement, anticipation, being really naughty and as you get closer to the face of this particular demon, a lot of things can go wrong but the most clear and present danger is the possible threat to your very mortality.

This is not a game or a dare or a rite of passage, this is what you will look back on and describe this getting high as a low point in your life. Be warned, be very warned, it could very well kill you! Too much heroin or even one minute, miniscule grain of fentanyl in your gear and this show is over before it begins, you'll turn blue as you gag, choke and then you will shit yourself, there will be a split second of regret and the next thing nothing! You'll be on an ambulance gurney with the sheet up over your face!

Anyhoo the very first thing to do is restrict the blood flow into the the vein you have chosen, ie. A rudimentary tourniquet of sorts. A belt, a shoelace, a long sleeve of a shirt. I had a trick where I could use the loose flap of shirt sleeve material under my arm and tuck it just right. Whatever you choose - it will need to be easily releasable with one hand! The vein you have chosen will now pulse a little as it has been dammed. I insert the tip of the syringe into the pumped vein that sits bulging just under the skin. There is a slight ouch as the skin is broken by the piercing tip of the needle and then another with a slight resistance as we enter the vein itself.

With a brand new syringe this is a doddle and pretty much painless (a slight sting at best) back in the old days when syringes weren't as easy to procure we'd use the same fit ten or twelve times. (Needle tip burrs were removed by rubbing them on the flint side of a match box box to get them down a bit because if you didn't you felt that all the way in and out and bled like a stuck pig!) If done correctly a slight swirl of blood will cloud out and through into the barrel of the syringe. Contact! Gently push the plunger in slowly and very soon you will taste your medicine.

The experience from here is different for each particular drug and even variances amongst the family of the drug itself as well. No two hits are the same and none of them will ever measure up to your first taste! Some people jack back a second time, only useful if you want to check if you are still in the vein. Push the plunger until its stops, pop your tie off off, one handed, as I mentioned earlier; and for fucks sake don't let it hit the fit hanging out of your arm! Then just pull the syringe out in one quick smooth movement. Scrunch your fist up to your shoulder for a few seconds and then open your arm and check for bleeding. Clean your syringe then snap and stow, - swab your arm with an alcohol wipe you would have got in your "junkie showbag"

May Contain but not limited to: one plastic non reusable sharps container, ten single use alco-wipes, two vials distilled water, one free standing plastic spoon, ten cotton filters, ten round band aids, three pieces of independent Jesus.inc literature and three condoms

And you're good, I wish you a pleasant voyage. With a bit of luck it won't bruise, if it does, just ice it and if you are into short sleeves I recommend a small touch of foundation just to confuse and diffuse any nearby lines of sight that may or may not be directed your way. This process outlined can be completely up to the individual as there are more junkie tricks than there are monkey tricks and never underestimate a user in line or waiting for their next taste... Your only concern now is stashing your kit and the length of effect!

While this tales is not all mine alone, this is my particular telling of it. I have tried to be as brutally honest as I can just to stress that this isn't a game, there is no reroll, no safety net, no money back for disgruntled customers. For some; this is the particular heaven or hell that they currently inhabit or exist in. For the most part it's not pretty and it is not my intention to portray it as such. My objective is not to glamourise the sordid details but to bring them in to the light because knowing the enemy is half the battle won.

The stories are out there everywhere, about everything, we brush past them all the time, they glimmer and shine in our peripheral trying to get our attention. They hold us back they push us forward, one way or another these tales will all be told.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and making it to the end.