Over the past few months there have been growing reports of ‘brown heroin’ on the streets of Sydney and other parts of Australia, so much so that even the mainstream media has been reporting on it. But just how brown is this heroin really, and what does that mean for users? What does it mean when it’s beige in colour? In particular, when should you use citric acid in the mix, and how much should you heat it? To answer this, User’s News thought it high time to explain the different types of heroin out there and how they vary when preparing for a shot.

What is heroin and where does it come from?

Heroin is a semi-synthetic opiate made from morphine, which is made from opium, which is extracted from the pods of poppy plants. Heroin is produced by treating morphine with acetic anhydride (which is also used to make camera film), and is two to three times as strong as the original morphine. The chemical name for heroin is diacetylmorphine, or diamorphine for short. The process of adding acetic anhydride doesn’t actually make the morphine itself any stronger — the body converts heroin back to morphine very soon after it’s taken — it just makes the morphine more efficient in getting to the parts of the brain that make you feel good.

There are two main types of diamporhine consumed by heroin users: diamorphine base (brown heroin) and diamorphine hydrochloride (white heroin). White heroin, produced mainly in the Golden Triangle (Burma, Laos and Thailand), is the traditional heroin consumed in Australia. It is the most refined heroin you can get and is often referred to as No. 4 heroin. Brown heroin, produced mainly in the Golden Crescent (Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran), is most common in the UK and Europe. It is less refined and is often referred to as No. 3 heroin. Confusingly, No. 1 and No. 2 heroin are not really drugs at all; rather they refer to the materials and stages used to make street heroin.

There is evidence that in recent years Afghanistan has been producing white heroin as well as brown heroin (although using different techniques and chemicals to South East Asian white). Some people claim that this Afghani white heroin has been imported into Australia; while no-one has demonstrated this for sure it is likely that some Afghani white heroin has hit our shores. And with Afghanistan recently producing its biggest yield of opium in its history, it’s possible we’ll see a lot more of it)

What is the difference between white and brown heroin?

Brown heroin is what’s known as a ‘base’ rather than a salt, which means it doesn’t dissolve in water very well. It is less pure than white heroin, making it less strong in the same quantities. It also burns at a lower temperature than white heroin, making it ideal for smoking. Brown heroin is much easier to make than white heroin and doesn’t require any special equipment or expertise.
The most important thing about brown heroin is that it requires the addition of some kind of acid to make it soluble in water. We’ll get to that later.

White heroin is a lot more difficult to manufacture than brown heroin. It requires an extra process that turns it into a salt, making it very pure and water soluble. However, special chemicals, expertise and equipment are required and the last stage of the process can be very dangerous — it involves the use of ether, a very dangerous chemical which can explode and destroy an entire laboratory if not handled carefully. The syndicates that produce heroin in the Golden Triangle have had this expertise for decades and have much more sophisticated set-ups than exist in the Golden Crescent.

Because white heroin is a salt it burns at a much higher temperature than brown heroin, so it is not much good for smoking. It dissolves in water very easily, however, and that is one of the reasons why Australia has always had a strong injecting culture. (In the UK, a lot more people smoke heroin, usually by ‘chasing the dragon’ on foil.)

Okay, so what about beige heroin?

One of the problems with white heroin is that it’s not always white. In fact its colour can vary considerably because of small differences in the chemicals and processes used to produce it. Common colour variations on the white theme include off-white, pink (aka pink rocks), and beige. And because white heroin is often more beige than white, it can easily be mistaken for brown heroin.
Confusingly, depending on how it is manufactured (or cut by middlemen), white heroin can appear brownish and brown heroin can appear like (dark) white heroin. Without a proper test it can be very difficult just by looking at beige heroin to determine if it is in fact light-coloured diamorphine base (brown heroin) or dark-coloured diamorphine hydrochloride (white heroin). The important thing to remember is that brown heroin always needs the addition of some type of acid to dissolve, whilst white heroin doesn’t. White heroin might sometimes need a bit of heating because of impurities (though overdoing it will simply evaporate part of the dope!), but it will never require any kind of additive to dissolve in water.

So what’s getting around town at the moment?

No-one knows for sure if the brown heroin reported on is really brown heroin at all. One of the reasons people think it might be is that Afghanistan has produced its biggest yield of opium in its history and producers there might be looking for new markets. But anecdotal evidence, including users reporting the need to heat the mix but not ad any extra agents like citric acid, suggests that most of it is more likely beige-looking white heroin (perhaps the Afghani white mentioned earlier in this article). However, if you do come across heroin and simply heating it up in the spoon isn’t dissolving it, then it’s probably brown. The next section in this article explains how best to prepare brown heroin for injecting.

Injecting brown heroin

Because brown heroin is a base (meaning alkaloid) it requires the addition of an acid to make it soluble in water. Brown heroin on its own has a solubility of one in 1700 parts of water, which means you’d need a lot of water and a giant syringe to have any chance of a successful shot. What you need to do is turn the heroin into a salt, and most people do this by adding either citric or ascorbic acid to the mix and then heating it in a spoon.

The big question, then, is what kind of acid to use?

There are four acids people use to make their brown heroin soluble, two of which are okay (citric and ascorbic acid) and two that are terrible and should be avoided at all costs (lemon juice and vinegar).

Citric acid

Citric acid is an organic acid found in citric fruits but is also manufactured in powdered form as a food additive as well as many other uses. It is considered safe and can be found in most supermarkets. Citric acid is also available at some (though not many) NSPs and comes in sterile, single-use 100mg sachets. NSPs provide citric acid to clients to discourage them from using lemon juice. Citric acid is not without its problems, though — it can damage the skin and veins and cause citric burns.

Ascorbic acid

Ascorbic acid is simply plain old vitamin C. Many people think ascorbic acid is preferable to citric acid because it’s milder and therefore causes less skin irritation and vein damage. Like citric acid, it’s widely available, although not in sealed, hygienic sachets. Because ascorbic acid is milder, you need to use a greater amount than citric acid.

The dangers of lemon juice

Although lemon juice (from both freshly squeezed lemons and packaged lemon juice) contains citric acid and is sometimes used to dissolve brown heroin, it can be extremely harmful and should be avoided. Lemons contain candidal fungi on their skins when they grow, and this is transferred into the juice. Injecting fungi is a really bad idea: resulting fungal infections can cause endocarditis (heart infection) and candidal endopthalmitis (eye infection). There are many reports of awful stories of eyesight loss due to candidal endopthalmitis in the UK, where brown heroin is common.

Vinegar

Although the key ingredient in vinegar is ascetic acid and is sometimes used to dissolve brown heroin, it should be avoided for the same reasons as lemon juice — candidal fungi, eyesight loss and other unpleasant things.

The bottom line is this: the best thing to use is sterile, single-use citric or ascorbic acid from sealed sachets. If that’s not available, then small tins of the same acid from supermarkets or chemists are your best bet. Avoid using lemon juice or vinegar unless you want to go blind or have your heart seize up.

How much citric or ascorbic acid do you use?

Although it is known exactly how much citric or ascorbic acid is required to dissolve pure base heroin (for every 369.4g of diamorphine base, you need 64.03g of citric acid or 176.1g of ascorbic acid according to one study), what’s in your spoon, of course, is never anything like pure diamorphine.

In the UK, some NSPs assume that the average diamorphine content (purity) is about 50 per cent and suggest that a 100mg sachet of citric acid is sufficient to dissolve one gram of heroin. If you’re using ascorbic acid, you’d require just under 300mg for the same gram. In other words, one part in ten for citric acid or just under three parts in ten for ascorbic acid.

If you use too little acid, not all of the heroin will dissolve and your shot will be less potent. This can be dangerous if it’s your first shot of that particular gear and you’re trying to gauge its strength, only to use more acid next time and potentially overdose.

But most people tend to use too much, which can lead to tissue and vein damage and acid burns, which can be painful. One good way to get it about right is to add the acid stepwise — in other words, a bit at a time until it dissolves.

How much do you heat the mixture?

Heating the mix (usually with a lighter under the spoon) is usually essential to ‘cook’ the mixture of heroin and acid. Doing it too little won’t dissolve the mixture properly. But doing it too much will simply evaporate the diamorphine, which is both wasteful and potentially dangerous if you’re trying to establish the strength of your gear.

Smoking brown heroin

Another good option if you come across brown heroin is to smoke it instead of injecting it. Brown heroin is very well suited to smoking — it burns at a lower temperature than white heroin and it’s a very efficient way of taking it. In some parts of the world smoking brown is by far the preferred method.

The advantages of smoking include having more control of how much you take, less chance of overdose and avoiding bloodborne viruses such as hep C.

The most common way of smoking brown is by ‘chasing the dragon’. This involves sprinkling a line of the powder on some foil, gently heating the underside of the foil with a lighter and sucking the smoke through a straw or rolled up bank note.

Gideon Warhaft is the editor of User's News

Download print version [Adobe Acrobat PDF - 80.28 KB]

Comments (39)

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written by STEFANO2678, August 02, 2009

WOULD YOU KNOW WHAT THE MIDDLEMAN CUTS THE BEIGE HEROIN WITH,AND HOW THEY DO IT

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written by jo lo, November 21, 2009

they cut it with quinine

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written by jo lo, November 21, 2009

cut with quinine

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written by john, March 27, 2010

i like heroin white

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written by crispi, April 06, 2010

anyting other than quinine or manitol?

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written by Stimbeor, April 07, 2010

There's some bullshit about vinegar in this article. You definitely shouldn't use Vine or Cider vinegsrs, but White distilled vinegar is as safe, or safer than citric acid. Acetic is antimicrobial and no yeast or bacteria can grow in it. Being a milder acid, any excess acetic acid is quite a bit less harmful to your veins than Citric.

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written by dk, July 06, 2010

i was in amsterdam this moring and this girl was cookin me a shot and put some whitr powder in our brown H to dissolve it, i can't remember what she said it was but it started with a "B" any one jave a clue? we were both americans so nothing was lost in translation

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written by dumbo, September 19, 2010

probably a brand name of vitamin c

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written by a, October 19, 2010

or "break down" or the dutch equivalent. ":breakdown" is acid used to break down heroin or cocaine base (crack..) for inject

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written by s uk , October 23, 2010

wud have been citric in a little white and yellow packet

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written by mitja, November 12, 2010

Dk- she was putting citric acid.You shure are lucky people in Australia, with that white heroin.Here on Balkans no sign of it.I did taste some in India AND BEEING DREMING OF IT SINCE.If somebody knows where in Europe one could get some, I would be happy to make a trip.

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written by steve, January 12, 2011

the dark in the uk well were i am has been terrible for about 3 mths now i smoke it and it is just doing nothing if anyhone knows of any good stuff in the uk please let me know

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written by Cody, January 19, 2011

In Arizona, USA. Here in the southwest we get mostly "black tar", which ranges in color from dark black to reddish brown, in texture from puddy to Tootsey-Roll like to hard candy (and the occasional powder which easily turns into tar by breathing upon it to add a tiny bit of moisture), requires just heat and no citric acid to IV (shooting that shit sounds just about as nasty to me as injecting something called "tar" does to you), but is best suited for smoking. Lets just say it looks like hard-fried Coca Cola, and sometimes it half is. I've actually bought what you could call counterfeit junk- straight up pure fried Coca Cola before, as it looks and feels just like some great tar, but upon smelling it and actually smoking it to taste that goddamn harsh carmel taste you realize you bought off of someone more desperate than you. Once I was lucky to find some cut with OxyContin. Recently found out it's actually usually a mixture of opiates, mostly just monoacetylmorphine with a portion actual diamorphine, an opiate coctail- hence occasional high potency in spite of low purity. I heard you Aussies have something called "homebake" that's alot like our Mexican tar.

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written by pat uk, February 20, 2011

@steve. whereabouts in the uk do you live mate. As I am in norfolk and its the same here. gear has been just awful for about 3 months. My mates and I are sure there is no heroin in it, but I have been blowing £150 a day on it in the hope that I get high, never do though. Also everyone has got the same shizzle. WHAT IS GOING ON????

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written by Dave Grimsby, April 04, 2011

Had white heroin in the US and thought it was weaker than brown heroin in the UK (but this was 10 years ago) The American users were raving about how could it was but it really wasn't, especially compared to the prescription pain killers they have there. Phetanol (not sure of spelling) which was like a super strength pain patch full of jelly like opiate which you scrape out, break down with citric/water, and then shoot, was the strongest shot I've ever had. Don't do any drugs now and I can recommend it because I don't have to worry about all that jazz any more! Peace out fellow junkies!

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written by JJ, April 18, 2011

Im from syd,australia and all we have here is the white stuff but i remember some time ago the brown stuff was going around 4 a little while and it actually gave a better high (without adding acid or heating it) than the white stuff since then iv been looking for the brown stuff with no luck.
Editor: Sorry JJ but we can't print the rest of that comment - we have to be careful mate.

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written by coward, May 23, 2011

watch out for fenyl peeps can come across as white h but if you take it you will die, unless u have the tolerance of the CIA there shit rulez

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written by Shay, May 25, 2011

If I could give any advice..Plz everyone..STAY AWAY from Fentynal!!!

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written by rob / ireland., August 12, 2011

im goin out of my mind here, the heroin has been nearly non existent. im tryin hard on methadone, but if i dont get a smoke once in a while i get so depressed its just not funny. no other drug helps. by the way fentynal made a brief appearance here for a few weeks, its fkn lethal strong, i smoked it and was out for a whole day. do not inject that stuff it is way to strong. it looks like white heroin so be carefull

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written by love heroin, September 07, 2011

ive been using in the northeast corridor of the US. and the crap we're getting up here for the most part sucks! when i started shooting it (3 yrs ago) it was awsome and was so good up until feb 2010, when the guy got busted for selling it. since then it's been a rollercoaster ride up and down, but never as good as it was when i started shooting it. its almost at the point of quitting cause it's so terrible. where is all the good heroin gone?

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written by Dave.T, September 21, 2011

The recent run of crap gear in the u.k was due to a fungal disease which wrecked the afghan poppy fields, it's getting better in east yorks where I live, but still a lot of rank gear about, but the smack rats are still buying it.

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written by sue, October 19, 2011

It makes me sad that i like most of you used for a long time 15 years actually,and some of you still dont get how much damage you are doing to yourselves. Yeh smack is good at the beginning but then it starts to eat away at your life in every single way possible.I found my THING that helped me get control. My son. Don't get me wrong i still crave being off my head but what keeps me going is i know i am worth more.please be careful all of you and don't let your next hit be the last.

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written by richie, UK, November 01, 2011

Dear Sue, whilst I'm glad that you have found your own route out of dependence I personally don't need your pity! In the UK, and in most other places in the world, users need clean medical supplies of heroin on prescription. Back to the British System[anyone interested can google rolleston report, the british system, RIOTT trials[only available for the very few in London, Brighton and Darlington]

the quality of gear in the UK is gradually improving, thank god!We still need clean, prescribed supplies however.
good luck to everyone struggling out there,

Richie

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written by matty , December 28, 2011

I was a regular daily heroin user in Birmingham and the heroin back then was always very good. Moved to Plymouth and after being on methdaone for one year, there was a problem with my script so I went and scored some gear yesteday. I must say that it doesn't give the bang like it use to. Not sure if it was mixed with something but when I was trying to sleep I was feeling very trippy and hallucinating images when my eyes were closed. I didn't remember getting that when i used to take heroin. The stuff I got smells, runs, gouches you out like gear but seems like a trip has been mixed in with it, lol.Maybe it was due to my tolerance.

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written by pouch, December 30, 2011

In Italy it's sold by Moroccans and Albanians. They sell it just like they buy it, without cutting it (it's cut enough at the source already).
We haven't found anything decent here in months. Actually it was bad 18 times out of 36 in one year of buying it.
I am getting off it because my money is real and their shit ain't. So long suckers.

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written by franko, January 25, 2012

I used to smoke brown back in the UK for about 8 years, but only weekends, with the ocassional 2 or 3 week break. We originally used it for coming down off pills after clubbing... but it gradually got its claws into us. Thankfully I never slipped into daily use. After using 5 days in a row I felt so rank, that was warning enough. I've been living in Sydney now for 4 years and have never tried to find it. That said, I am quite partial to prescription painkillers (when I can get them). I cracked my rib a year ago and the doc gave me Oxycodone caps. You can snort them and the buzz is the closest thing i've had to brown H. Very nice. I guess I'll ALWAYS have the taste for opiates now... and I'll just need to manage it and never slip up. Whenever I pop back home to the UK I nearly always hook up with mates who are still smoking the brown and have myself a little taste. Quality always seems good, but then it's only once a year so I have v low tolerance! This monkey is with me forever, and I'm just grateful my willpower has been strong enough never to slide into daily use. There are much better things in life (which I'm enjoying!), but I just can't seem to forget it....

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written by Tommy Tutone, January 28, 2012

Who knows the real deal in India? I lived there in the 70's and could get anything I wanted from most pharmacies but the choice was limited...Morphine vials and was getting tired of the pins and needles....But better than nothing...When I couldn't get to the Rx I ate raw Opium...a gram or so twice a day was pretty damn good...so what's it like now? Do I have to visit a doc in a big hospital like in Thailand? Or just walk in any pharmacy and ask the guy with the gold tooth?
T. Tutone

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written by Sue Seaside, March 29, 2012

Re: Smoking Brown
"The most common way of smoking brown is by ‘chasing the dragon’. This involves sprinkling a line of the powder on some foil, gently heating the underside of the foil with a lighter and sucking the smoke through a straw or rolled up bank note."
In London I have never known anyone to chase brown through a straw or bank note. They burn fam! You make a double wrapped tube out of the best foil you can find (normally bacofoil). Remember to burn the foil off first! And don't put a line on. It's not coke. Put a small pile on. Heat gently and chase!

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written by Kat 12/05/2012, May 13, 2012

I live in Oxford, I am at the understanding that smack has been bad quality for over a year now because of a fungus that ruined the poppy fields in Afganstan. I know that it is impossible to buy amounts of good stuff for a reasonable price, prices are pushed way up. Trying to pick up a £20 bag of smack is a complete joke, I dont think the stuff in Oxford has any smack in it, if it has very, very litte, I smoke it and am unable to feel it let alone get a buzz. When will things go back to normal, I predicted it would take a year its been over a year now, I hardly ever buy gear now just stick to a meth script, but I miss the buzz and wouldnt mind travelling to find some good stuff, any cities close to me with good stuff????

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written by casper, July 06, 2012

Kat-im in oxford aswell,how u getting on now? the stuff I get aint like it was a few years back but its a lot better than it was at beggining of the year

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written by ...., July 27, 2012

Seattle/ everett wa, has brown h, never had white before. I also used to smoke oxy's and did the switch to h because we could no longer get them or the price went .up to 100$ per pill.

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written by sankah, August 18, 2012

In nottingham the smack has recently got much better, but you still have to pay bare for the best, nd it isn't so bad if you don't chase, and do lights and darks instead

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written by Jm425, August 25, 2012

I live in Everett, washington USA and for the last 2 years we've had the most potent shit ever. I don't even know where to find shitty dope! It wasn't always like this though, so I feel ur guys's pain! But shit come here and get the real, no BS!

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written by toelessJoe, September 28, 2012

go to the Silk Road to get the best H out there - right now it is all coming out of Canada. You'll need TOR (the onion browser)and bit coins (BTC) just google "Silk Road" TOR and BTC and get buying, my friends.

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written by north east bag head (joke! Jonny), December 04, 2012

i come from the north east of england and i like to smoke my gear. i noticed that you mentioned using a rolled up bank note as a "tooter" (the tube used to inhale the heroin) but better than this we up here use a tube made of tin foil, we do this as once we have smoked all of our gear, we un-roll the tin-foil tube and then smoke what it has collected whick can be quite substantial hence more efficiency with your gear. could i just ask you guys where abouts in the world you are? what your gear is like? and how socially accepted is it? the gear up here is bad to be honest... not very pure at all. and in no shape or form is heroin socially accepted in this part of the world, mainly because its associated with theft and burglary. i myself take this drug very secretly as it would break my friends and families hearts if they knew. however, i do work for my money (qualified electrician) and would never dream of stealing for it.

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written by johnny, January 07, 2013

garbage in sydney

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written by MyDopeyLife, February 17, 2013

I am an American but been living in Thailand for about 4 years now.. Let me tell you guys, you only need the size of a matchhead to get the buzz of your life. Anything over that is peer suicide!! This is not china white... Its Thailand white.. It carries its own name. So lady's and gentleman welcome to the best place on earth in my opinion to get the best of the best. Enough said!!

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written by Secret, March 17, 2013

In the north east of the U.K. the Heroin is very nice at the moment and has been for about the past half a year. It'snormally an off white colour ( Beige ) And is sound, I smoke it on the foil using a foil tooter 2 inhale the smoke ( Not a bank note or paper ) That's just silly !! As it collects on the foil tube so u can smoke what collects on your tooter, ( Long term users will know what I'm on about ) In the 90's a brand of gear came in which was white, we called it the white rock and it was DYNAMITE 2 smoke on the foil ( best ive ever had ) Nothing like that about these days, But it's certainly not shit where I live in the north east. Well this is my little rant and opinion on the above subjects and posts ! Stay well peeps, PEACE.

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written by Junkie D, April 05, 2013

Portland Oregon is the capital of heroin right now I just spent three months as a homeless junkie street kid and for fifty a g the shit makes I gowed out but for now trying to get off methadone maitainence and switch to suboxone wish me luck after ten years of being sick of being sick I'm done only 24 trying to get out now fxxking methadone is the worst been stuck at clinic off an on for almost five years here we go!!

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