Jay is a 30 year old heroin addict who has been injecting for over 17 years. He first started using heroin back in the 8th grade, where he would sneak off into the bathroom while at school to first snort, and then later inject, heroin.
Prior to preparing his heroin, Jay crushes some very potent prescription Dilaudid pills.
Dilaudid is the brand name for Hydromorphone, a derivative of morphine. Here Jay snorts the two pills that he previously crushed.
After snorting the Dilaudid pills, Jay begins his junkie ritual by pouring a fresh bag of heroin into his cooker. According to many heroin addicts, it’s the ritual itself that becomes part of the addiction; the scoring, preparing, and then finally the injection process, all become just as addictive as the heroin itself.
Water is then added to the white powder, which is then cooked down.
Once the heroin is dissolved, it is then drawn up into the syringe. Addicts often use their teeth to pull back the syringe while holding the cooker and needle in their hands. Here Jay is pulling the heroin through a piece of cotton, and into his syringe.
Finally, the injection process begins. It can often take as long as 30 minutes for a junkie to “hit” a viable vein. This is Jay making several attempts at hitting in his hand.
After multiple failed attempts in his hand and arm, Jay then moves to his feet where he works on injecting between his toes. The amount of trance-like fixation can be quite remarkable. It’s as if the entire world disappears when a heroin addict is attempting to inject.
Jay finds success injecting into his foot. He starts to fall back as the warm opiate embrace overtakes his body.
Jay manages to sit up for a moment, murmurs a bit, and then slides deep into his nod.
Jay later woke up enough to stagger around the city for several hours. The combination of prescription drugs mixed with the heroin really rocked Jay. He reported to me the next day, that he woke up on Michigan Ave. without any of his belongings. He has no idea what happened.
