Injecting - skin popping

[beentheredonethatagain]

I remember in science class way back when beenthere was a student.
We were taught that people would skin pop heroin. Inject the drug just under the skin and not into a vein. like a miss but deliberate

Is this still going on or was that just B.S. from the school district.

[Expat98]

Check out the poll in this thread:

Heroin - Route of Administration

Not common, but it looks like a few people enjoy this method.

SWIM always heard that you're running a pretty big risk of infection with skin popping (subcutaneous injection).

I'm currently reading Speed Tribes: Days and Nights with Japan's Next Generation by Karl Taro Greenfeld, a collection of stories about the Japanese underground (good book). In one of the stories a guy skin-pops some shabu (methamphetamine)....but it is a pharmaceutical grade ampule, so the risk of infection or skin abscess is a lot less than for street drugs.

EDIT: Hmm, I just looked at the thread I linked to. I think the following warning from there is worth repeating in this thread:

Skin Popping is injecting into the tissue just under the skin. Drugs are absorbed much slower (5-15 mins) which gives the mixture more time to cause damage at the injection site and increases the chance of serious infection. 'Missed hits' can cause similar problems.

SWIM developed an abscess (cellulitis) on her upper arm after skin popping heroin. It was 3 days later when SWIM finally went to the hospital as the pain became unbearable and SWIM’s arm looked like Popeye’s by this stage. (There was no skin infection, not even a mark showing the injection site.) The doctor told her if she had waited another day she would most likely have gotten blood poisoning and died. He also told her that it most likely developed due to contaminated heroin or due to a particle of something being on the tip of her needle (SWIM was not using a new needle – STRESSING the need for using a new fit EVERY time!) SWIM was put on an antibiotic drip hoping that this would reduce the infection but this did not work and within 24 hours SWIM was having surgery to remove it. Surgery took over 2 hours and the surgeon said the abscess was the size of a baseball. Afterwards a tube was left in her arm for 3 days to drip out the last of the infection. The doctors also told her that the “safer” (NOT SAFE) way to skin pop was to inject mix into the softer or fatty tissue rather than into muscle or harder tissue.