What you will need.
1. Some sort of injectable drug.
2. Syringe (I highly suggest its clean)
3. Cooker (I prefer a spoon)
4. Cotton. (Q-tips are a great place to get them, alternately you can use cigarette filters. If using cigarette filters I prefer camels, but you can really use any.)
5. Water
6. Lighter
7. I also suggest some sort of tourniquet.
Step 1.
Put your dope in your cooker. If you are doing some sort of pill (OC, Dilaudid, Morphine) crush the pill up first (I prefer to do this with pliers as I can get a lot of pressure and really atomize the shit).
Step 2.
Add water. The easiest way measure this is to draw water up into your syringe. The more water you use the less dope will get stuck to your spoon, and cotton. More water will also decrease your rush, and can make it harder to both register, and inject. Experiment and find a happy medium.
If you are shooting pills, you should take this moment to crush any chunks that may remain. The back of a plunger works pretty well.
Step 3.
Cook your dope. Apply heat to the bottom of the cooker.
You don't want to over heat it as this can lead to some of it burning and wasting. With Heroin you can heat until the dope is soft, you can always heat it again if you can't get it all to disolve so until you know what you're doing, don't over do it.
With Pills (OC, Dilaudid, Morphine) You don't technically have to heat the shit. It does help some of the smaller particles dissolve though. You should generally heat it until the contents turn clear, or right after boil. Some pills have gelatin added to prevent shooting. Heating this stuff usually just makes it worse.
If you are shooting speed or coke, you do not need to heat your shit. Go ahead and completely skip this step.
Step 4.
Stir your dope. You should have some sort of stirring rod. I use the plungers from syringes. If you only have one syringe you can pull the plunger out, mix with it and then put it back, but make sure you get it completely clean. Heroin especially will cause your syringe to gum up really quick.
When I'm doing pills I usually stir them up before heating, and don't worry about it afterwards.
Step 5.
Add cotton. It needs to be rolled into a small ball.
It doesn't actually have to be cotton, although I prefer it. Lots of needle exchanges will give you pre-rolled cottons. If not you can use cotton swabs, cotton balls, cotton pads, or cigarette filters.
Step 6.
Draw your dope up through your cotton.
I place the open side of the needle onto the cotton, and pull back on the plunger. This will often slow down as the cotton becomes clogged. I watch the level inside the syringe, you can usually tell if its still moving. If it is moving at all, I suggest you let it do its thing. The reason it is slow, is the cotton is stopping all the crap that you don't want to put into your veins.
Step 7.
After drawing your dope up, you should remove as much air as possible from the syringe (don't tweak out on this and waste your dope, Shooting a small air bubble into your veins will not hurt you.) and shoot it into you. I suggest using a tourniquet to help get your veins to pop. Once you get the needle into, or near a vein pull back on the plunger. You should see blood flow into the syringe. If you don't see this, you are not in a vein. As long as you don't let the plunger go back down (there is a vacuum in there, and it will suck down) you can dig around until you hit a vein. Make sure you pull the tourniquet before you pull the needle out or you will lose some of your dope out of the hole.
Step 8.
Profit.
If I have omitted anything, or anyone has any questions please feel free to ask. I am writing this from memory, I will add anything I forgot as I remember, and have time.
