I'm looking for some good test kits to separate and identify substances. I've heard mixed reviews about Bunk Police and Dancesafe, but I'm not sure about the validity of any of the claims. I want to make sure I'm buying quality before I drop a bunch of money on something meant to save lives. Can anyone offer any suggestions or input?

Long story short: 'over-the-counter' cannabis vs prescribed trazodone

I'm recovering from a long term illness, and I use cannabis semi-medicinally. When I started, I tried to keep it to 3-4 times a month, essentially using it in place of lorazepam for acute anxiety. I have easier access to cannabis since it's legalized for recreational use [Canada]. And let's face it: I feel much better on cannabis.

I've had sleep problems most of my life. I take 12mg trazodone every night for sleep. I've been at that dose of trazodone for 8 years now, and it's fine. But lately, I've been using cannabis almost every night. A 2mg THC/6mg CBG gummy is my current dose.

I occasionally use 5mg–10mg THC recreationally, which is why I say I use cannabis semi-medicinally. I limit my recreational use to once a week at the absolute most. I tend to stick in the 5mg–7mg THC range for rec use, but I have used up to 10mg.

Additional HR strategies I have in place: I don't use cannabis before 8pm. If I've had <3mg THC, I don't drive for at least 12 hours. If I've had >3mg, I don't drive for 16 hours. When I use cannabis, I don't take trazodone. If I'm using a recreational amount, I let my partner know first.

I just had surgery, so I used that to experiment. Maaaaan, trazodone gives me fucked up dreams. I never realized before because the options were either fucked up dreams or no sleep. I was severely mentally ill when I was first put on trazodone lol. And cannabis also helps me with nighttime irritability whereas trazodone just helps me sleep.

I have a wonderful clinical relationship with my doctor, but my cannabis use is the one thing we disagree on. She's rightfully worried about risk of worsening anxiety with long term use. I don't plan to stay on cannabis forever. It's a tool that I'm using for my recovery. I feel the benefits are outweighing the risks, but I'm worried I'm not being objective.

Do y'all have any thoughts on this? Are there any additional HR strategies I should put in place?

TL;DR: I prefer low dose cannabis edibles over my prescription trazodone for sleep, but how sustainable is this?

I have been thinking about this.

There seems to be a certain amount of addicts out there that literally just can't/ won't quit substances even though the substance(s) have destroyed their life. I know a few people, including myself.

I'm 34M and I can say my life has been destroyed by several substances. However I can't/ won't stop, entirely. I can take breaks, reduce the amount and practice Harm Reduction.

I struggle with whether I can't or I won't quit the substances. It's like what came first, the chicken or the egg?

If a person has profound mental suffering, and has tried to abstain from the substance(s), and still suffered profoundly, and the substance(s) also have legitimate benefits that can be harnessed if the person learns how to 'control' their usage, then why is being abstinent from all substances still the #1 treatment?

I get that some people literally cannot control their usage however I don't believe this to be true for all addicts. I think this is especially true for people who have endured profound trauma that doesn't respond to things like therapy or antidepressants or whatever. That doesn't respond from being completely abstinent.

What are your thoughts on all of this?

been a while :)

have run into some obstacles regarding alcohol harm reduction (not necessarily the validity of tips, rather my consistency in following through).

my bf whom i love so so much sat me down gently yesterday and talked to me about alcohol use and moderation. this was after a night of nothing catastrophic but me definitely being more drunk than necessary

he said that me being especially drunk makes him anxious which honestly is a big driving factor for me wanting to moderate not just more consistently but always

especially as he said he didn't really care about seizures (i don't have TCs, it normally just looks like i'm shaking, and they usually happen the morning after. and also they happen like every day w/o alcohol anyway 😭). it's just what's in my control that i should . control

anyway what relates to the title of this post is how / the sort of plan we devised to concretely space out drinks etc

it's very similar to how we space out when doing other drugs (coke namely comes to mind) - very careful dosing time and listening to ourselves . it def takes some self-discipline but i think it will help

we discussed a certain issue - thankfully, as i believe i'm now over it - that even the people we've taken this approach to, say, coke with do Not approach alcohol this way. my bf and now i are, it feels, pretty unique

i wonder if that's because drinking is so normalised? over-drinking? idk. if anyone has any observations let me know lolol

i feel less weird after talking to him this time but it almost feels like i'm putting restrictions on this social activity because of this system i'm observing now. but also.. for my bf's sake (and mine i guess. idc about myself much though) it's so worth

i wonder what it would be like if others viewed alcohol this way

It hurts to move cause in crook of my arm but no fever. No other discomfort. Can send private photo of it if anyone needs. In outside USA right now or else I’d go asap to get it looked at. Would love any help or advice. Thank you.

Registered a shot but couldn’t hit and decided to empty it into a 2ml centrifuge container to use whenever I ran out of my supply, either to boof or boil off and smoke in a pipe. It’s been 3-4 weeks and I ran out of a couple days ago. Wasn’t even sure about boofing old blood just sitting in a container for a few weeks, would’ve done some research beforehand. But after taking 6mg of Xanax today I ended up filtering the blood through some 70% isopropyl soaked balls of cotton, and repeated a couple of times. Had added 25 units of water with all the residual powder of ice I could collect so the blood was slightly diluted and stronger to some degree. Added a couple units of isopropyl to the syringe and stupidly slammed it. I’m extremely cautious when it comes to iv admin, I can’t believe I did that even barred out.

I rubbed in triple antibiotic ointment beforehand, prepped with an alcohol pad, put a bandaid with a little bacitracin zinc added to it, slight pressure for a couple of minutes, and then took bandaid off 10+ min later, wiped the area with a piercing aftercare cleanser and am in a dry circulated room. Been 2 and a half hours since, no iv site reaction at all (very rare for me) and feel fine/no signs of problems. Took a bunch of vit c and zinc, folate, multivitamin, and NAC , as the only precaution I could really do by myself.

I asked ChatGPT how much risk I’m in and how likely am I to be ok, and it basically told me I was fucked. I’d like to hear from people in here though who have actually done shit like this, know of or have experience with doing what I just did. Am I in critical danger? Could I end up being fine? Or is that highly unlikely. No one knows I’m an iv user and I’ve never had any complications or infections before. If I feel completely fine should I still seek medical attention? Are there places I can go where I can do this discreetly? I’d rather avoid it at all if I can, but if there’s a high chance I get sepsis or endocarditis/something serious, I’d like to get medical attention tomorrow so I can prevent/get early treatment and avoid serious complications

Hey, just trying to do some harm reduction here. Not sure if it's "better" or "worse" to get crazy once every 20 days, or get much less crazy every 10 days. I thought that the former was better in order not to get my brain and body used to doing drugs almost every week, but I'm not sure anymore. What are your thoughts about it? Thanks a lot.

Hi, good evening folks. I am a therapeutic ketamine user who can no longer afford expensive treatments. I’ve got myself a few grams of what I think is pretty pure ketamine at least that’s what the test said it was. I also have in my possession some 28 gauge needles. I am completely and experienced with doing any kind of self injection, but I’ve seen a few YouTube videos and it seems fairly straightforward. If you file the steps and good hygiene the reason why I want to do the occasional intramuscular injection is because for one you get more out of here ketamine like twice the amount of sniffing as I’ve heard so that will not only save me money, but also help with wear and tear on my body. I think that’s important because I’ve been in regular treatment for a year or so. Just wondering if anyone knows if a 28 gauge insulin needle would work for my powdered ketamine. I’ve had great results with this medicine and I’ve had a two month break. But I can feel my mind getting really funky and I do not want the SI to come back so if anybody can help me with this here, I would really appreciate it thank you and have a lovely evening.

The only time I truly feel safe and my mind at peace is when I get high. Sometimes it prevents me from making a plan to end it. However, I have a past with substance use was drug free for 4 years. Eventually scared it’ll become an issue but right now I think it’s keeping me safe.

Let's assume resources are no problem. I'm familiar with CWE, but is there an optimal way to do it that removes maximum paracetamol and minimum codeine? Or is all CWE basically the same? I also wondered if maybe there was a different solvent or technique that might work better?

If possible I'd also like to know of any way to test how much paracetamol and/or codeine is in the final product.

Thanks in advance!

hi everyone, I hope you’re well! I’m currently looking for some volunteers who have experience with drug use for my new discord server :)

I recently started taking cymbalta as well as 10mg of ability and i’m wondering if there’s certain drugs i should 100% avoid (besides opiates, MDMA) I’m particularly interested if i can still do coke, ketamine, and alcohol. I’ve googled and checked other reddit posts but have heard conflicting information.

Hi I am a psychology student who is very passionate about harm reduction as well as addiction and substance use research, also a user myself. Curious about what career opportunities exist in harm reduction for someone with a psychology and research focus. Also would love to hear some of your guys stories and how you got involved if anyone would like to share.

Thanks <3

Edit: I’m in Manitoba if that helps. Lots of great responses though thanks guys!!

This survey has been approved by the moderators.

Do you use alcohol and opioids? Are you 18 to 25 years old?

Brown University is looking for people who use alcohol and opioids to participate in a research study. The study involves only 4 appointments over 1 month, answering questions on your smartphone, and takes about 6 hours total. Receive up to $305 for your participation. All contact is confidential.

Please text 401-863-9799, email mhealth@brown.edu, or fill out our eligibility survey (takes 5 minutes or less to complete): https://brown.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cHklsZZ2XdIUDjg?Source=32  

Ethical approval board - Brown IRB: irba@brown.edu

(I do apologize if this has been asked before. I did do a quick search within this community and didn't find anything. If this has been addressed, feel free to simply share the link to the post. And if this not the proper community for this post, inform me, and I will remove it.)

My relationship with IV meth use (at least at this point) is not compatible with me living in an abstinence-only environment. I left my home (in part) due to it being such an environment. Living on my own, I have maintained an (imperfect) environment conducive to safer-use (clean needles, alcohol pads, sharps box, tourniquets, etc. [there are a few more items I feel I should have, but I have the basics, and it's better than nothing.]). Unfortunately, I do not foresee myself being able to go back home, but it is not unlikely that at some point I will cohabitate with someone who does not approve of drug use, and I would like to be able to provide a thought-out alternative to an abstinence-only environment. I know that only I know what is right for me, but it would help me to get others' opinions, experiences, examples, etc. to the following questions:

1. What items should I be permitted to keep at home to promote safe usage without encouraging overall usage at home?
2. What items should I be permitted to keep to promote safe usage for when I use outside the home (and where should I keep said items)?
3. Should I advocate for an environment where I am permitted (but not encouraged) to use at home as opposed to an environment where I am permitted (but not encouraged) to use only outside of the home?
4. (This one I know is deeply personal, but others' experiences might help me understand what is best for me.) Should I keep some product available to me? I'm leaning "no" as it would provide constant temptation, but it would prevent last-minute sourcing from a potentially bad source, and I would not be compelled to do it simply because an opportunity pops up, as I would be able to tell myself that I could do it another time.

Hopefully this is the right place to post this. I completed training to be a trainer myself for naloxone a while ago but I’m having a hard time finding answers to some questions I have about where and who I’m allowed to train. Can anyone help me out? Any suggestions for resources online? Thanks in advance.

EDIT to add that I’m in Virginia and I would be doing layperson training. I have looked for Virginia-specific resources but haven’t had much luck.

I consider myself a responsible adult drug user.
I use test kits and even have some fentanyl test strips.
I am not abusing my drugs.
That said, I have started getting scared of drugs recently.

The fentanyl lacing possibility has started freaking me out.
I read that it can be potentially found in any powder form, i.e. cocaine, speed, even in my beloved ketamine.

Yea, I know I must use the test strips always but I read that fentanyl distribution may be uneven...and you may get a negative result for your sample but there could still be fentanyl in some other part of your batch...and testing your whole batch is impossible.

So I have been trying to replace most of my drugs of choice with pharmaceutical or legal versions of them and have a peace of mind.

e.g. replace cocaine and speed with Adderall.

What's your thoughts on this? Am I overreacting? Any other suggestion for enjoying my drugs safely?

I’m a chronic alcoholic if I drink just a few drinks and get that glow I won’t stop until I have to be medically detoxed but I have had detoxed at home that was hell on earth. Anyway I haven’t had to goto medical detox in over 6 years but 3x I took a drink only once did I get really drunk and thankfully I had enough benzos for the morning that my wife forced down my mouth so I wouldn’t take that morning drink or else all bets are off. The last 6 years I have been with the same job which is 5 years longer than any other job and I’m 52male. I’m prescribed 3mg of klonopin a day and 800mg 3x a day gabapentin and I use Kratom multiple times a day. My wife also is prescribed Xanax that she doesn’t use often so I always have back up when I run out of mine and she will give me 2mg just for fun once a week. I didn’t think I was going to get my klonopin refill for a few days so she gave me 10mg of Xanax to get me thru but my pharmacy called and said it’s ready today so I went and got it and popped 8mg Xanax took 3mg klonopin and have good smoke from dispensary and I’m in lala land but still very alert cuz I have such a tolerance. I’m just going to say I don’t care what your drug of choice was there are many ways to escape reality without the drug that would ruin our lives. Most will understand 12 step programs don’t work and can make our addiction worse. Peace. I Know I rambled just high AF

I’ve had a shitty week. I also just put my cat to sleep about 2 hours ago. I’m home now and all I want to do is drink and cry. I took 10mg valium 2 hours ago and I’m just wondering if it would be safe to drink or not. i don’t want to die I just want to blackout, yknow. is any amount of drinking safe currently or should I wait longer till the valium is at a lesser half life? thanks

Hi everyone, I’m thinking about trying a very small dose of street cocaine IV for the first time. I've used buprenorphine this way, so I know how to inject safely. This cocaine isn’t very pure, and it’s been in a rolling paper for about two months. I’d like to know:

1. If it’s safe to mix it with water and inject it without additional preparation.
2. What I should watch out for in terms of health risks, especially related to heart issues or overdose.
3. Any tips for someone who’s only familiar with injecting buprenorphine, not stimulants like cocaine.

If helpful, I can upload a picture of the product. Just looking to understand the risks and anything critical to know."

Picture :

https://imgur.com/RcVCzPV

I've had the same bottle of Etizolam in pg solution for 6 years. I take it no more than twice a month, only for playing shows and occasionally at home on a weekend so that I can just feel normal and deep clean my house without freaking out about it. I've been doing this for six years without much deviation, it's just a set of rules I use so as not to even get close to addiction to it.

I know that benzo withdrawals are some of, if not the worst out there. This is another reason I've always been so strict about my use. I took it three days in a row one time at the very beginning, just very small amounts, and my sense of impending doom was through the roof by the fourth day. I knew then and there that I'd be using it extremely sparingly.

But lately I've been considering taking them more often. When I'm on it, I feel what it's like to not be constantly worried about something and/or myself. I feel what it's like to live a kind of normal feeling life, where you're not overly happy about stuff, but you're also not completely overwhelmed with worry about anything and everything all the time. I always think, "this must be what it's like for people without clinical anxiety. I'm just kind of taking care of business and doing what I need to without thinking too hard about it."

I've been seeing a therapist for years, I've tried various anti depressants, and nothing works in any substantial way. I'm pushing 40, and for as long as I remember, I've felt like life is barely worth living.

So, finally, my questions are - is there any way taking etizolam often won't just ruin my life? And if I take it more regularly, is there anyway to try to combat the rebound anxiety that I'll surely experience? (I get rebound anxiety even after my one or two times a month, because my brain is so prone to anxiety). I know there are people out there who are prescribed daily benzos, which doesn't make sense to me because taking them daily, wouldn't you just have to keep increasing your dosage for them to maintain efficacy, and to keep rebound anxiety at bay, eventually maybe plateauing?

Sorry for rambling. I'm just at my wit's end with my life, and I have this drug that makes me feel like I can function normally, and I want there to be a way that I can take it more often so that I can enjoy my life.

Sorry again for rambling, thank you for any insight.

Me and my girl our wanting to try molly. I have questions obviously. What’s a good dose for our first time? Can you have a “bad” trip on m? (I’ve had a lot of shroom and lsd experiences go south quickly that’s why i’m nervous). How long does it last? I’ve been wanting to try for quite awhile, and my girls is open to it so i’m thinking why not. I just don’t want to tweak out and ruin her experience because I couldn’t handle mine. I’m not a puss or anything but when I am having a bad trip I just roll over and put a pillow over my head with my headphones in and fall into the abyss. I dont really want to TRIP I just want to roll a decent amount and have a good amount of euphoria and for sure visual enhancement, and mental and physical tripping. If that makes any sense. I like to trip alone if i’m not tripping alone i’m not tripping.

In recent weeks I have seen a flood of social media content regarding the death of a singer I had never heard of (Liam Payne), almost invariably with reference to a concoction generically called pink cocaine. 

For me, the name conjures the image of a lightweight girly version of coke. Sadly, it’s nothing of the sort. Let’s take a quick look at what seems to be an in-vogue craze.

https://preview.redd.it/q9l039e9gozd1.jpg?width=3247&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ee0b9c9abeae6ce6b6ab9fa7f9a19611e28c8f0c

Wikipedia will tell you that pink cocaine (aka tussi, tuci, tucibi) "contains a mixture of different psychoactive substances, and is most commonly found in pink-dyed powder form". 

That mixture is neither defined nor consistent. Although it commonly contains drugs like ketamine, MDMA, meth, and cocaine, there is no agreed or universal recipe. Different vendors will sell pink cocaine which contains radically different drugs. 

Straight from the bat you can see a serious safety issue. Without deep testing of the actual contents of your supply, you are in the dark, and are taking a significant risk. Even ignoring your exposure to an unknown combination of classic drugs, which in itself could be severely problematic, it could easily contain fentanyl, or perhaps some relatively unknown research chemical with a similarly dire safety profile. 

Here's another issue: even if you do know the actual contents, you are unlikely to know the ratios. In other words, you don't know the actual doses of each constituent drug. This too is a serious accident waiting to happen. 

So… right here, without going any further …. you don’t know what drugs you are taking and you don’t know the doses you are taking them in. This is like spinning a roulette wheel with some of the numbers equating to tragedy. 

If anyone reading this is foolhardy and reckless enough with their lives to still proceed, here are some tips:

• Establish the real contents. Test your supply!  
• Try to establish the ratios and err on the side of caution re dose.
• Research the dose thresholds and harm reduction info for each constituent drug, perhaps using a resource like the Drug Users Bible or Erowid.
•  Adopt a more formal harm reduction process. For example, by following ‘The 10 Commandments of Safer Drug Use”.  https://drugusersbible.org/content/drugscape/safety_first/the_10_commandments_of_safer_drug_use/index.html
•  Take a VERY close look at the TripSit combination chart. Heed the contents (see the 10 Commandments).

A better tip?

Don't take it. If you are going to take a drug, identify the specific outcome you actually want and select the specific drug to deliver it rather than taking an unknown combo.  

VENDORS: Please really think twice if you sell this stuff, or at the very least, honestly specify the actual contents and ratios. People are clearly getting into serious trouble, and worse, with it.