Safer injection guide

Disclaimer: This guide is provided for informational and educational purposes only. We do not encourage you to break the law and cannot claim any responsibility for your actions.

Injecting is the process of dissolving a compound in a liquid and placing the resulting solution into a needle-tipped syringe for the purpose of self administration. Substances can be directly injected through the veins into the subject's bloodstream (a practive known as intravenous or IV injection) or into the muscle tissue (known as intramuscular or IM injection).

Dangers

• Risks of infection - The simple act of penetrating one's skin with anything is a way to introduce bacterium, viruses, etc directly into your body. Be as sterile as humanly possible! Use alcohol swabs to wipe the injection area before and after injection. There is also infection risk if one is injecting impure, adulterated, or unfiltered substances into their body. These drugs are not passing any membrane for filtration and any impurity in the drug will be directly introduced into the body.

• Blood-borne diseases - Sharing needles with other users is the most obvious way to transmit a blood borne disease or infection, but there are other less commonly thought of ways too. Using multiple needles in the same water supply can spread disease. Sharing the same spoons and other equipment used to prepare the injection solution is also a way to contract a blood borne disease.

• Re-using needles - Re-using needles is not advised for a number of medically relevant reasons. If upon injection you do not hit a vein, only retry with that same needle one more time IF NEEDED. It is always best to use fresh needles every time you inject.

• Absessed infections - *SEEK PROFESSIONAL MEDICAL HELP IMMEDIATELY*

• Injecting into the wrong tissue - Some substances need to be injected into certain types of tissue, and this affects which injection method should be used. For example, heroin works best when IVd and can be extremely harmful when injected into subcutaneous tissue. This is why it is so important to make sure one is 'in a vein' before they inject themselves.

• Increased withdrawal effects - This can be experienced with substances like opiates, such as heroin. The higher bio availability of the drug when injected and the increased Cognitive euphoria and Physical euphoria can contribute greatly to addiction, withdrawal, and drug cravings.

Materials

• Milligram scale - it is important to weigh out the substance you are going to inject

• Insulin syringe with IV needle - used for IV injection, this has a short needle meant to penetrate surface veins

• Syringe with IM Needle - used for the less common Intra-Muscular (IM) injection. The needle will be longer than the traditional insulin needles seen for IV use because it is designed to penetrate deep into the muscular tissue and deposit the solution there, instead of in the vein itself.

An IM needle differs from an IV needle in length.

• Alcohol swabs" - For sterilization before and after injection.

• Sterile water - It is important to use de-ionized water or distilled water to inject with. Tap water may contain harmful impurities. It is also important to change the water at a regular interval to prevent bacteria growth within the water. Placing a small amount (10ml max) in a shot glass and using this for IV/IM purposes is a good way to ensure a fresh water supply.

• A buddy! - If possible, try not to IV/IM alone. Things can go wrong. Overdose risk is highly increased when injecting and having someone there to call 911 or give you medical aid can be the difference between life and death.

• Micron filters - These are used to filter out physical impurities in the drug solution. A cotton filter is better than nothing, but a micron filter is the best.

Procedure

This is in the interest of harm reduction, IV/IM is not an advisable route of administration from a health and safety point of view. IM administration is more commonly found when using drugs like ketamine.

IV Injection

1. Dissolve the chosen substance in water, be careful not to exceed the amount of water that your syringe can hold.
2. Heat the solution up, suck the solution into the syringe through the filter
3. Using a fresh needle, prep your injection site with an alcohol swab.
4. If using the traditional crook of the elbow injection site, you may need to apply pressure above the vein to make the vein stick out more. This is commonly achieved through "tying off"
5. The needle will most likely have a slant. It is important to angle the slanted edge toward your skin, so the point of the needle penetrates the vein and injects downwards.
6. Once you have penetrated yourself with the needle, pull back on the plunger of the syringe. If you see blood, you've hit a vein and are good to inject. If you see nothing or feel a suck back, you are not in a vein, you are in subcutaneous tissue, do not inject. Repeat steaps 1-5 until you hit a vein.
7. Once you are in a vein, push the plunger down *SLOWLY*. Especially if IVing an opiate, such as heroin, do not rush the injection.
8. Once all of the solution has been injected, slowly remove the needle and use a new alcohol swab to clean the injection site. There may be a little blood.

See also

• Responsible use
• Preparation
• Routes of administration

External links

• Getting Off Right Safety Manual (harmreduction.org)
• Safer Injecting Guide.pdf (drugs.ie)

References

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Responsible drug use index