DOSE:		insufflated	Heroin	(powder / crystals)
		IV	Heroin	(liquid)

BODY WEIGHT:

150 lb

This report will describe the effects of my first time using heroin (route of administration was intra-nasal)and how it compared with my subsequent experiences injecting heroin. I will begin with the way I was introduced to this drug.

When I was 16, I was walking my girlfriend at the time home one night when I saw a friend (who was several years older than me, somewhere in his mid 20s at the time) standing on a corner on the way to my girl's house. My friend called to me to come see him when I had walked her safely home (I grew up in a pretty rough neighborhood in a rough city). After I kissed my girlfriend and saw her safely inside, I returned to the corner, where my friend stood in wait.

'What's up?', I asked. 'Want to split this bag of dope?' he replied.
'Sure', I like opiates/opioids and tranquilizers, so I was definitely interested. 'How much?' I asked. 'free, just hang out.' Cool. I didn't have any rigs, so I sniffed mine.

T+ 5 min: Started to feel the familiar, warm opiate glow I was already familiar with, since I enjoy my pain pills.

T + approx. 15 min: The stuff was definitely coming on nicely, and felt pretty much like eating a handful of strong opioid pain pills, which have always been cheap and readily available to me. The feeling increased steadily during the next 30 minutes, when it peaked. I enjoyed it, but I didn't see how people let it control them and lost their jobs because of it. It had a duration of about 6-8 hours if I remember correctly (it's been many years ago).

Injection: The second time I did heroin was October of 1990, about 2 months after my initial experience with sniffing it. There was an extremely hot goth chick I knew who, for some reason, started to pay attention to me. Before this, I didn't think she knew I was alive, though I was into the same things she was. She invited me to hang out at her house one afternoon. I jumped at the chance of course. She asked if I did dope. To impress her, I told her yes, of course I do, all the time. She produced two white, wax-paper bags and two individually packaged sets of rigs (IV syringes). I watched her make her shot and followed suit, acting like this was old hat to me. Using a lace from one of my combat boots for a tourniquet, I tied, found a vein, and registered on my first try. I pushed the shot in, untied, and was hit almost immediately with a huge rush of warm, euphoric bliss. It was like a whole different drug injected compared to sniffing. 'Ah' I thought, 'this is how people ruin their lives on the stuff. this is how people become strung out junkies with this stuff. Now I get it. If there is a heaven, this must be what it feels like.

T+ 0:05 (approximately): Huge, euphoric opiate rush. Complete bliss. A great warmth and sense of well being permeated my entire being. Not just my body, my soul it seemed. It was like God reached into my soul and gave me a hug.

T+ 0:05-0:30: The feeling grew in intensity during the course of the next 30 minutes, coming on in waves, peaking, and plateauing for about 6-8 hours. I didn't have a care in the world. Gone were anxiety and panic attacks. Someone could have told me the house was on fire, someone could have told me I was on fire, and I wouldn't have cared. I knew right there, I really liked heroin.

I kept my use occasional for years. I knew heroin withrawls were hellish from what others told me, but words fail to describe it. I still knew it was something I didn't want to go thru. But heroin has the whole rest of my life to get me. I have always had a severe panic disorder and 20 years ago, I had an accident that causes me to have pretty severe chronic pain. Heroin was one drug which took care of both things. I thought because I did it for more than four or five years and was able to control my usage, I wouldn't become a junkie. By the time I was 21, I was a full on heroin addict. I remained a heroin addict for more than 20 years.

Exp Year: 1990	ExpID: 107559
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: 16
Published: Jun 5, 2018	Views: 3,729
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Heroin (27) : General (1), Retrospective / Summary (11), Various (28)