Culture - Question about smokable Heroin

[flube]

I know the Heroin that's found in the UK is manufactured to be smoked. I'm not sure how long the conversion process has been around, but wondered if anybody knows how it was originally smoked, I'm not sure if aluminum foil was the target medium for smoking when this process was first discovered. If not, any ideas how it was smoked? by pipe etc.. Swim is just curious

[Solinari]

I have heard that 'chasing the dragon' originated in China or at least in the far east and i imagine they probably used opium pipes to do it.

I just looked on Google and found Heroin smoking by ‘chasing the dragon’: origins and history (i hope this site is OK to link to), the article abstract states..

The history of heroin smoking and the subsequent development and spread of ‘chasing the dragon’ are examined. The first heroin smoking originated in Shanghai in the 1920s and involved use of porcelain bowls and bamboo lubes, thereafter spreading across much of Eastern Asia and to the United States over the next decode. ‘Chasing the dragon’ was a later refinement of this form of heroin smoking, originating in or near Hong Kong in the 1950s, and refers to the ingestion of heroin by inhaling the vapours which result when the drug is heated-typically on tin-foil above aflame. Subsequent spread of ‘chasing the dragon’ included spread to other parts of South East Asia during the 1960s and 1970s, to some pans of Europe during the late 1970s and early 1980s, and to much of the Indian sub-continent during the 1980s. At the time of writing, ‘chasing the dragon’ has now been reliably reported from many parts of the world but no: from others with an established heroin problem-such as the United States and Australia. The significance of this new form of heroin use is examined, including consideration of the role of the different effect with this new form of use, the different types of heroin, and changing public attitudes to injecting.

[flube]

Thanks! great find