Spreadin' the works before NE?

[robojunkie]

I have always wondered about us junkies that have been around long enough to have never had shit like needle exchanges/behind the counter needle sales how common it was for people to do this. I've been to so many many detoxes and heard so many other junkies sayin' shit like "I'd NEVER share my works/use anyone elses" so many times, but that's obviously bullshit. I know I did, not often, usually out of desperation with stupid self reassuring shit like if I heat it, draw and heat it again that will kill everything. With one person (my SO) we did all the time, like f'ing without condoms we considered it. Not trying to be nosy and shit I just wonder about this cause so many people I know did many times and got burned, somehow I got lucky, and like no one ever seems to admit it unless you know they did cause you did with 'em. I'd always say "ya I'll never do that again once the test came back clean, but..." I never saw it as "being stupid" (even though it may very well be) but being totally desperate.

[red26]

I can honestly say I've never shared a rig, cotton, cooker with anyone. Screwin without a condom, now thats a different story. Dont ask me why. Theres 2 people I'm freaked out about not usin a rubber with but have been tested since then and I'm all clear. Sharing a straw for blow freaks me out, nevermind a needle.
Live and learn, ya know.

[Duckfeet]

Yeah, of course I always did. Rigs were in short supply, I mean, I hate to tell u what it was like, pulling the plunger out, putting a little vaseline--or even earwax on it, all the numbers rubbed off the barrel, needle dull, clogging all the time...nasty shit. Maybe one rig among a bunch of us, clean it out in the same glass of water we all shared. Same cotten, same spoon... I'm not going to lie, that was just the way it was. It wasn't really until AIDS came around that people got any kind of sanitary ideas at all, best I remember. And even then...I mean a hardnose street junky could give a shit less about something coming way down the pike like AIDs...or back in, what, 1994 when nonA nonB hep became known as HepC, I guess that added to the deal...but I always figured the kind of people who have enough snap to get on a computer and actually use the damn thing regularly aren't the kind of dope fiend I'm thinking about. Most of the people on here seem to have at least the minimum self-preservation instincts that were lacking in the world I was in for many years. I got hepC from that, I'm sure, but mine disappeared w/second treatment, years ago...


Back then, it was just luck of the draw, if u got the virus. Usually NYC, LA, big city junkies it became rampant. Lucky for me, when HIV was first spreading around, I was living down in Gulf Coast, and it wasn't around as much. My cousin and his wife died of it. Everybody I know in Louisiana and east TX missed it...it was more around in old stomping grounds in OC out here in Calif, but by then I'd learned to take care of myself...

[Chemical_Boy]

I can honestly say I've never shared a rig, cotton, cooker with anyone. Screwin without a condom, now thats a different story. Dont ask me why. Theres 2 people I'm freaked out about not usin a rubber with but have been tested since then and I'm all clear. Sharing a straw for blow freaks me out, nevermind a needle.
Live and learn, ya know.

I won't even sit on a toilet seat without an "ass-gasket" made of multpile layers of toilet paper. Definitely wouldn't stick someone's snotty, moist dollar in my nose, so I have to agree with you. I also had myself std testes after bangin someone who was hot and I was drunk and the next day I was like" Oh my god, my pecker's going to fall off. What was I thinking??" If I had a to either share a rig, or go without, I would either chase the dragon or sniff that shit, depending on whether it was tar or powder. I don't even like to use payphones and shit like that though.

[shaunclo]

I have never ever shared needles, but then again I am only 28 and didnt go through the times back in the day like duckfeet did, hes right......back then was a different ballgame with different rules. People now-a-days are waaaay more health conscious and weary about their health, for the most part.

[nick]

I'm 38 and have always had needle exchange for works,but I.ve shared in desperate circumstances.plus at the time I really wasn't that bothered if I lived or died.Thankfully I'm clean.

[devilsdrug]

like df it was the norm to share we had removeable needles , grapes , ect wood have to sharpen on match book cover occasionallly and boil to clean , it was a great day when someone got a new one

[flipside]

Yeah, of course I always did. Rigs were in short supply, I mean, I hate to tell u what it was like, pulling the plunger out, putting a little vaseline--or even earwax on it, all the numbers rubbed off the barrel, needle dull, clogging all the time...nasty shit. Maybe one rig among a bunch of us, clean it out in the same glass of water we all shared. Same cotten, same spoon... I'm not going to lie, that was just the way it was. It wasn't really until AIDS came around that people got any kind of sanitary ideas at all, best I remember. And even then...I mean a hardnose street junky could give a shit less about something coming way down the pike like AIDs...or back in, what, 1994 when nonA nonB hep became known as HepC, I guess that added to the deal...but I always figured the kind of people who have enough snap to get on a computer and actually use the damn thing regularly aren't the kind of dope fiend I'm thinking about. Most of the people on here seem to have at least the minimum self-preservation instincts that were lacking in the world I was in for many years. I got hepC from that, I'm sure, but mine disappeared w/second treatment, years ago...


Back then, it was just luck of the draw, if u got the virus. Usually NYC, LA, big city junkies it became rampant. Lucky for me, when HIV was first spreading around, I was living down in Gulf Coast, and it wasn't around as much. My cousin and his wife died of it. Everybody I know in Louisiana and east TX missed it...it was more around in old stomping grounds in OC out here in Calif, but by then I'd learned to take care of myself...

I'm 38 and have always had needle exchange for works,but I.ve shared in desperate circumstances.plus at the time I really wasn't that bothered if I lived or died.Thankfully I'm clean.

like df it was the norm to share we had removeable needles , grapes , ect wood have to sharpen on match book cover occasionallly and boil to clean , it was a great day when someone got a new one


What they said. of course that was a long time ago long before harm reduction etc, back then like Nick said i just didn't care, never in the last 7 years though. Thank God I was one of the lucky ones. Too many old friends living with and dying from hep B/C or already gone from AIDS

Now I on't even let anyone's water near my cooker and guard my equip like it was a stash of dope.

[madnesscult]

Although I'm young compared to most of the members of this site, and have always known of HIV and other viruses, I used to do some risky shit...when I first started using I was living with 2 friends and we pretty much all shared needles, as they were in short supply. Even though I knew the risks of such practices, I wasn't terribly concerned with it...I mean, it was in the back of my mind, but never a real concern. Maybe it was due to the sense of immortality and immunity you have when you're young. But yeah, that combined with unsafe sex: I'm incredibly lucky I never contracted anything. I currently share rigs with my boyfriend, but we've both been tested numerous times and don't share with anyone else. Today I wouldn't think of sharing a rig with someone (other than said BF), especially strangers (which I did once several years ago). I've never smoked H, and didn't even know how to until recently, so it never occurred to me to do so instead of sharing works.

[blackdog]

yeah they look pretty healthy,should be ok! hah!
well for awhile their. alot of my friends were droppin like flies. now when i run into old friend's i really i get really nostalgic & upset thinking about how we actually are survivors that made it through that love generation.remember ,love the one youre with, free love,love your neighbor,love love love
hah! love da/dawgg:p

[Duckfeet]

yeah they look pretty healthy,should be ok! hah!
well for awhile their. alot of my friends were droppin like flies. now when i run into old friend's i really i get really nostalgic & upset thinking about how we actually are survivors that made it through that love generation.remember ,love the one youre with, free love,love your neighbor,love love love
hah! love da/dawgg:p

There's times when I kind of miss the innocence of it, you know: you could fuck without worrying about it, shoot up dope, party the night away. No worries. Oh well. I guess I'm lucky to be alive. Many better behaved than me got nailed.


Right now I'm watching this documentary on the Sundance channel about young hookers in Cambodia. Those poor women. Drugs, AIDs. At least I had a chance, been lucky. Sometimes just where your born can sentence u to a fucked life.

[superman]

never have, never will.

if it comes down to it i'll smoke, sniff or eat it. or just gto the pharmacy...

[Duckfeet]

never have, never will.
if it comes down to it i'll smoke, sniff or eat it. or just gto the pharmacy...

Actually *very* smart move. It changes everything once u cross that line, and seems to take a lot of the joy out of every other way of doing it. Often becomes an obsession in itself.

[superman]

Actually *very* smart move. It changes everything once u cross that line, and seems to take a lot of the joy out of every other way of doing it. Often becomes an obsession in itself.


Hahaha, sorry i think you misunderstood me. What I mean is I won't share a needle with anyone.

sorry if that was unclear, but i love mainlining :hangloose

[Duckfeet]

Hahaha, sorry i think you misunderstood me. What I mean is I won't share a needle with anyone.
sorry if that was unclear, but i love mainlining :hangloose


*Got* it...and I thought there was still hope for u too ;-)

...and I don't share anything anymore either....like playing russian roulette...which never appealed to me either.

[devilsdrug]

way back i was in a prison with all i mean 1500 or so junkies aids was just on the blip meter and they started usin us as guiena pigs for aids tests back then there wasnt an easy test anyway every couple weeks they wood take blood from everybody, i was another of the lucky ones never got anything un fukkin belieable what i got away with

[Duckfeet]

Yup, my younger cousin was a junky out in Florida, he hooks up with this girl, they change their ways, get off dope. One day she gets a call from *her* ex, in prison, he says he's got the "virus." My cousin and his girl get tested, they both got full blown AIDs. This is back in eighties. Was a death sentence. They both died, just like docs said they would. Used to be no way out of that shit.

[candy]

I only shared a needle a few times with an ex-boyfriend who swore up and down he was clean. I knew he was HIV neg., but Hep C was not a concern among us then. But, ya know after you think you can trust someone and their is sex involved.......Well, live and learn. I ended up getting my own needles due to his greediness and disappearing acts all the time.

But, I am neg. for Hep C at this point and come to find out, bastard knew all along he had it.

Hep C education is fairly new compared to HIV education!