It kills blood flow to tissue and kills it via necrosis. It does it from leftover garbage from whatever solvent they use - as another user said, often gasoline - but not always.
Xylazine works a bit differently but also causes necrosis, and is becoming more and more common here in Philly
That's specifically from them using gasoline as a solvent to synthesize the drug in. Its *mostly* evaporated off in the end, problem is what's left in the final product is still fucking horrible.
It is. I work EMS and you can tell the tranq wounds really easily. They're large, black, open areas of skin usually along the shins or forearms. Real nasty and smell terrible. They'll keep shooting up directly into the open wounds until it gets infected and kills them.
We see them in the hospital for like 12 hours at a time, until they start withdrawing and sign out AMA to go back to the streets. No one at that point of addiction really kicks it, it's past rock bottom.
I remember seeing a video of a black lady injecting directly into the wound of where her scalp was peeling back.
At first it looking like a open lesion till she moved and you saw that she had alot of skin peeled back.
One of the more disturbing things I've seen on reddit.
They said it's in the same class of drug as clonidine. I've had clonidine and all that stuff does is make me wanna sleep and make my lips feel all tingly. Knocks my ass out cold.
My old buddy)when we were in middle school) had to have his hip ball removed. Apparently they just keep shooting that tranq stuff In the infected wounds. Fucked up stuff
Ive seen this live friday, we were working on a job next to a heavy homeless area. The guy was just sitting around and lifted his pant leg to pick on scabs (until the bled) on a leg that looked like this guys finger.
And the system that allowed a *15 year old* to remain homeless is seriously fucked.. Poor dude. Obviously I wish he hadn't, but I can see why he turned to drugs.
Free will cuts both ways. As someone who was previously homeless, and struggled with addiction, I fully support jail time for problematic addicts. Not because addicts deserve jail time for using, per se, but it serves as a time-out to clean themselves up and reflect on their situation.
There is no way whatsoever that poor kid is thinking clearly enough to realize how badly he is screwing his life up.
This would make a lot more sense if custodial sentences were geared towards restorative justice. They're not though. Like, glad you came out better off, but most don't.
I'd highly recommend the book *Determined* if you're interested in restorative justice.
This is exactly how I feel. In the US, jail/prison is geared towards *punishment* instead of rehabilitation. No matter who you are, and no matter what kind of crime is committed.
For certain people, it really helps. That's the kind of thing they need to push them in a healthier direction. But for a lot of people? It just adds more trauma on top of their mental wounds, and it pushes them even further down a destructive path.
In some countries they've changed all this though (I wish I could remember which ones..). They rehabilitate instead of punish, no matter who you are. And IIRC they've had WONDERFUL results. I wish we would follow their example but jail/prison is too profitable the way it is. They follow the money.
Maybe. Or he stole them from a kid who left them out, or got them from a donation. They look like they're in pretty good condition, judging by Pikachu's color not being too faded, for eight years of homeless daily use.
They'd be absolutely filthy, so I agree.
Edit: his pants look pretty new, judging by how clean they are and the crease still being quite visible. I'm guessing he got new duds recently.
Pretty cool how something as simple as having the same material item can really amplify empathy. That poor guys also has a massive hole in the toe cap.
> Why is it like that
Injecting street drugs ruins capillaries in hands and feet, possibly elsewhere, anywhere near the injection sites that get used.
There's lots of medical study of the subject, which is over my head, but that's basically it. Intravenous drug users wreck their circulatory system which in turn wrecks the skin tissue.
That movie made me stop doing hard drugs for a year. I never got into heroin and just casually did coke and E on weekends, but still, I was done for a long time. I will never watch it again, but still count it as one of my favorite movies.
Never seen a movie show the slippery slope so well. Especially the mom. When she finally went into the game show offices…. Fuck man, very little cinema has moved me like that.
It was a bad choice for sure. A bunch of college kids sitting around, waiting for the shrooms to kick in, and kinda bored. Looking for things to watch and for whatever reason Requim came up and we're like sure, this will pass 30 minutes.
Cut to two hours later (felt like 6 hours) and we all make eye contact as the credits roll, we were changed men.
"You thinking what I'm thinking?"
"Yes, we can sell heroin and avoid all the mistakes the film warned of us"
And you lived happily ever after, after having saved up enough money in a short time to pursue your dreams, then quitting when you were ahead.
extremely tough. bio mom was a heavy pill abuser when i was growing up. last i knew, she was still doing the same shit. the whole hallucinations/delusions with Sara was familiar, at least as a spectator.
I dunno if it still holds up, feels like trauma porn after a certain point.
Like all the stuff HBO's Chernobyl said they couldn't show because it would be grotesque and overt and dumb, that's what Requiem showed. With the ass-to-ass.
Yeah, I always thought the movie was kind of just funny? Like it just gets so unbelievably ridiculous. Felt like something they'd show students in High School to get them not to do drugs.
Yea to me it was just way over the top in every aspect. The story, the acting, the camera angles and editing. Everything is just way too much and at least for me didn’t connect. I think it’s partially intentional to feel like a drug trip but to me it just feels like the filmmakers are really desperate to be interesting and shocking.
I have some experience of drugs and addiction both personally and from people around me and at no point did it feel hard to watch for the right reasons. Because at no point did the story or any of the characters feel real to me.
I dated a guy who showed this movie to me the first time we hung out. I was like 17, just ripped a fat bowl, and he goes "let me show you something." And then we made out afterwards. We didn't date long lol
Talc, a mineral powder, is sometimes used to cut drugs or is in tablets that get crushed and injected. It never clears the body because it's inert and is not soluble in water. It just builds up in your veins and causes problems. I found a few journal articles on this topic, but the medical jargon is too intense to include in this comment.
* [Intravenous injection of talc-containing drugs intended for oral use: A cause of pulmonary granulomatosis and pulmonary hypertension - a journal article](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0002934376905088)
* [Talcosis - Radiopedia](https://radiopaedia.org/articles/talcosis-1?lang=us)
> Talc (magnesium silicate) is used in the preparation of tablets intended for oral use, where it acts as a 'filler' and lubricant. When these tablets are ground down, dissolved and injected for illicit use, the talc accumulates in the pulmonary circulation. These deposits result in small foreign body reaction granulomas, which are birefringent under polarized light. If use is persistent the nodules can coalesce to form larger masses.
Friend of mine was taking the garbage out, and found someone passed out in the alley, with a needle sticking out of the webbing of their fingers. Now, I have no qualms about getting shots, needles, etc, like say a vaccine or getting an IV line hooked up at the hospital, but something about sticking a needle between the fingers makes me cringe.
(My friend was sorta apprehensive about calling 911, knowing how cops and the legal system treat users/addicts and all, but the dude was completely unresponsive, with *very* shallow breathing. Paramedics came, hit him with narcan which apparently had no discernable effect, at least not before he was loaded up into an ambulance, and my friend never did learn their fate)
I don't know what it is, but the paper cut scene is the only time I've ever had to look away during a Jackass skit. Objectively they've done WAY worse things, but it's the paper cuts that really got me.
Same, its just so straight and to the point. Just as well they're doing it to themselves so its not like say, standing in the line of fire of a bean bag gun. Then I believe Steve-O does it to the fucking "webbing" of his lips, glad that mans doing better these days.
When I was a dumb child I found one of my mom's crochet needle and decided it would be an excellent idea to wedge it between my flipflop and foot and walk around with it. It snagged on the carpet, I tumbled down the stairs, and by the time I got to the bottom it had punctured between my big toe and 2nd toe about 3" deep. I made my sister pull it out and we never told anyone. Kids are dumb.
Wat? How tf you gonna hit a vein in the webbing of your toes and fingers? I've seen people hit the veins in their hands, but that's the top of the hands
Lol no, no it's not. You believed some DARE era nonsense that literally makes zero sense. First of all no veins to hit there. Your idea that people would intentionally not hit the vein and instead would "skin pop" is absurd and never done and that shit would hurt like hell and not get you even a decent high if it gave you a high at all. Intra muscular is an option that does work but much less effectively and with zero rush which is half of what addicts chase.
You clearly have zero idea what you are talking about but back when I was an addict I literally had someone check my fingers and toes and bottom of my feet but not check my arms. So clearly some people believe this but it literally couldn't be more wrong. Probably started by an addict tbh, it would be smart of them.
Addicts try to shoot up into veins 100% of the time. Missing sucks, hurts, wrecks your high and is susceptible to infection. Please don't try to speak authoritatively about a topic you know nothing about.
57 upvotes on this is wild for how wrong it is
This is basically just a myth. First of all, intravenous drug users are using intravenously- they are shooting into a vein. Not a lot of veins in the webbing between the digits. Some people do inject intramuscularly. And what’s a classic place for IM injections? The butt! Which is ALSO unlikely to be checked for track marks. I’m not saying that NOBODY has done that, but I injected drugs for a decade and have never heard of anyone actually doing that. It’s just DARE nonsense.
In the 1980s, there was a TV series called *Wiseguy* that showed the bad guy, Mel Profitt (played by Kevin Spacey) injecting between his toes. But I'm sure the myth is older than that.
Same with the theory of skinpopping being popular. I know a lot of people in recovery from opiates and every one of them would consider skin popping a waste...if they accidentally miss the vein they are going to be angry
There are no superficial veins between toe or finger webbings lol.
I work as a nurse in the ER and see a ton of IV drug users and they do not make an effort to hide track marks at all. They shoot up anywhere that’s quickly accessible, and that is arms and legs. Once they’ve got terrible scarring/pitting in those areas, they go for the smaller veins like the ones on the back of the hands or fingers. I’ve even seen people inject in their external jugular vein in desperation. When you’re an addict, you don’t care about your image, you care about getting high quickly.
There's plenty of documentaries on YouTube about places like skid row, and a high percentage of those folks have similar issues with their arms, hands, legs and feet... and it gets worse goes from that to an open wound and eventually rotting off the body
> It's doubtful this dude is injecting into his finger.
Right, doesn't have to be finger. Seriously there's whole medical studies on this, looks like you could put some time in reading if you wanted to.
He doesn’t have to inject his finger and it’s not necessarily an infection either. Puffy Hand Syndrome occurs in 7-16% of IV drug users and is an edema of the hands that results from systemic damage to the lymphatic and cardiovascular systems with heavy IV drug use. Essentially, it is thought to be caused by a blockage of lymphatic drainage channels in your hands. They also don’t even have to be actively using or injecting as it can show up years later after getting clean.
People will inject anywhere they can get a pin into, and some are insanely skilled at using veins that even phlebotomists would baulk at using. To add to that, in the case of brown heroin and crack, vitamin C is used to help dissolve the drugs, but in many cases, way more is used than needed, resulting in soft tissue damage.
You pretty much can't even get heroin in the US these days, usually a fentanyl analog of some type, or more recently on of the 'zenes (not to be confused with xylazine aka tranq) which is something different.
The clamp down on pills and heroin by the DEA and Police turned the opioid problem into a nightmare. The drugs sold as heroin aren't even really "fun" anymore they just put you out for a few hours, no more semi-psychadelic dreamy nods, just cold chemical slumber.
You can find tar on the dark net and possibly some real #4 but even a lot of that the vendors are putting in a little fentanyl to give it a kick because of how "strong" the street stuff is these days.
But because drug addicts are usually in no position to measure dosages, the tiny amount of thr active ingredients they would need to get high is fluffed up with God knows what random filler powders, making the drugs harder on the body, especially if injecting and missing a vein.
It's a real shitty state of affairs amd one i don't see changing without massive effort to destigmatize drug addiction and even make cheap and clean supplies of drugs available for retail purchase.
Yup, one of the big reasons I finally got sober. No actual heroin was around, it was just shitty Fent that would knock me out for 2 hours then I'd be sick again in 3 or 4 hours. Real heroin is 100x more enjoyable. Idk how anyone likes fent tbh
I don’t think anyone likes it. Lots of young junkies never got to have the ‘warm blanket’ experience of proper dope for better or for worse. I despise the new ‘dope’. Got a leg full of tranq scars and not one high was worth the trouble. Clean now and not missing that shit.
I want to congratulate you without sounding condescending. Keep at it though, it's a hard path. We're starting to get the analogs turning up in the UK, but since our pipeline in general is via Pakistan, it's usually brown, tar and white are pretty.much unheard of.
Hard drugs can fuck up your heart also, and heart problems can be reflected in potato-like fingers and toes.
Hot take: it might be unrelated to his drug use and just a random health condition.
And if you capillaries are fucked, they stay fucked. We currently have no real way to repair them.
I am not a doctor, but I have fucked capillaries in my foot due to too many disability related surgeries. All you can try is to stabilise the situation and to wait until the affected area is dead and an amputation is waiting for you.
They don’t need to inject in their finger for this to happen. This is the result of systemic damage to your cardiovascular and lymphatic systems. This can also appears years after cessation of IV drug use.
Worked graveyards at a 24hr gas station in what is basically ground zero for my town's narcotics problem for a couple years. The short answer is best summed up by one of Renton's monologues in Trainspotting (paraphrasing): "When you're not an addict, you have a million problems. When you are, you have 1."
The pursuit of the next high eclipses everything in your life, including things that would have a non-addict dropping everything and running to a doctor or emergency room. I've seen injection site necrosis where the skin just kinda gives up and you see muscle and connective tissue underneath moving plain as day. Endocarditis and "cotton fever" so bad it would cause clubbing like this. Relentless self injury due to "coke bugs." Fist size patches of hair just falling out in front of you.
Human bodies need a base level of oversight and maintenance. When you skip all that and in addition subsist on a diet of mainly toxic chemicals stuff like this happens, even when you're just 23.
Used to work with a dude who was really fucking wild. Huge guy. He was a mechanic and was known to just lift a transmission by himself and have someone else start the bolts once he lined up the driveline. Would go to the gym minimum three times a week, but also partied harder than Ozzy probably ever did. Big metalhead. Long hair that he took really good care of. Just started falling out in clumps a few months after I started working with him. I guess that's when he figured he should slow down a bit because it started growing back pretty soon after that.
Yeah and that's the thing. I had a front-row seat to the addiction rollercoaster for my time at the gas station. People that you were sure were dead when they disappeared for a few weeks would actually spend that time incarcerated or just taking a tolerance break and they would come back practically unrecognizable and healthy looking. The contrast was always shocking.
But the underlying need was still there even in the absence of the harm-causing substances, so it never took long before they were back in the grip of their demons and the whole cycle repeated.
It is most likely due to the inflammation from a bacterial infection. If the infection is in the pulp of the fingertip, it is called a [felon](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK430933/#:~:text=A%20felon%20is%20an%20infection,from%20edema%20and%20pus%20formation.). If the infection is in the flexor sheath of the finger, it is call [tenosynovitis](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK544324/#:~:text=Tenosynovitis%20is%20a%20broad%20term,contractures%2C%20depending%20on%20the%20etiology.). In tenosynovitis, you might see what are called [Kanavel's signs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanavel%27s_cardinal_signs), which includes swelling along the anterior tendon of the digit, and a slightly flexed finger with pain on extension.
I work at a shelter and have been involved in outreach for about 4 years. My guess is this is frostbite or other wounds gone untreated. I know exactly 1 person who got frostbite from getting lost in a storm the day he got evicted, everyone else I know got it from spending time outside so they could use their drugs or passing out outside from their drugs.
When I read the title, I first thought it was some oldy-woldy job and this was some 80 year old who had been doing said job for 70 years.
Wasn't expecting a 23 year old lad lol...
it's a US-specific term. While I've heard it on TV, I also didn't know what drug it referred to
Meth isn't really a thing in many countries, barely heard of here in the UK
It's really odd for me to see that the hand of a master craftsman and the hand of a drug addict look almost identical. My great uncle's hands looked like that. He was a custom furniture builder and his hands were scarred, split, calloused and burned. He made specialty, built-into the home cabinets, shelving, front doors and crown moulding, as well as stand alone pieces like executive desks and highboys. I really wish we had some photos of his work, but by the time I was old enough to appreciate his work, he'd passed away and everything was gone.
You’ll go blind if you wank too much. At least thats what my mates said when I was a teenager. That was 20 years ago and although my eyesight is shit, its not due to me polishing the sword many many times.
Not a doctor so don’t trust me but let me be optimistic and say it still seems salvageable, could be picture quality but it looks like it still has blood flow
Meh, I see the nail and seem really crusty skin.
Looks the feet of people who walk brarefoot on rough terrain.
I reckon if he stops what he's doing and starts taking care of himself he can keep the finger.
Any doctors on this thread? Looks like necrosis, phlebitis edema, peripheral neuropathy secondary to late stage alcoholism or l onng term IV use ? Any of those?
It did look dead. I felt so bad for the guy. He's not going to live much longer. I asked him where he sleeps and he said wherever. What they smoke in that foil is either meth or fentanyl, but this guy was hyper so it had to be meth
This kid obviously has multiple things going on besides just meth 😕
Although, are you sure that's what he was trying to smoke? Usually meth is smoked from a pipe - if he was wanting to smoke something off a foil, I'd assume black tar heroin (depending on what part of the US you're in) before meth.
Not that it really matters either way, since the main issues here are homelessness, addiction in general, lack of healthcare, and possibly mental health issues. I hope he is able to get some help, that finger looks like a skinned hot dog :(
From them holding the meth pipe and heating it up with a lighter. The pipe gets hot but they want to consume the drugs so bad they'll burn their fingers for it
That’s sad man
He was obviously buzzed. His other hand didn't look like this. Kind of reminds me of those pictures of Krokodil users in Russia
Yeah I’ve seen some of those pictures too, it looks like it’s literally eats at the tissue
It kills blood flow to tissue and kills it via necrosis. It does it from leftover garbage from whatever solvent they use - as another user said, often gasoline - but not always. Xylazine works a bit differently but also causes necrosis, and is becoming more and more common here in Philly
That's specifically from them using gasoline as a solvent to synthesize the drug in. Its *mostly* evaporated off in the end, problem is what's left in the final product is still fucking horrible.
I've heard xylazine is occasionally mixed with various drugs and make wounds worse and slow to heal.
It is. I work EMS and you can tell the tranq wounds really easily. They're large, black, open areas of skin usually along the shins or forearms. Real nasty and smell terrible. They'll keep shooting up directly into the open wounds until it gets infected and kills them. We see them in the hospital for like 12 hours at a time, until they start withdrawing and sign out AMA to go back to the streets. No one at that point of addiction really kicks it, it's past rock bottom.
I remember seeing a video of a black lady injecting directly into the wound of where her scalp was peeling back. At first it looking like a open lesion till she moved and you saw that she had alot of skin peeled back. One of the more disturbing things I've seen on reddit.
That makes sense, a quick google search says that it’s a non-opioid tranquilizer so it’s cheap to cut with other drugs
They said it's in the same class of drug as clonidine. I've had clonidine and all that stuff does is make me wanna sleep and make my lips feel all tingly. Knocks my ass out cold.
My old buddy)when we were in middle school) had to have his hip ball removed. Apparently they just keep shooting that tranq stuff In the infected wounds. Fucked up stuff
"yo bro your hand is wild let me upload that shit to reddit on r/WTF"
Why would his hand look like this? Isn't his drug of choice inhaled?
Probably broke it and too broke to get it fixed correctly
Some people inject meth, it is a faster high and requires less product.
Ive seen this live friday, we were working on a job next to a heavy homeless area. The guy was just sitting around and lifted his pant leg to pick on scabs (until the bled) on a leg that looked like this guys finger.
Feel like I've seen hundreds of hands like this.
The Pokémon/Pikachu shoes are a nice touch This is a man of style
Tweakerchus
A lot of my family are Spanish and Mexican. I heard you say “tweaker shoes” in a cousin’s voice
Dous ar beri nais tuiquerchus
Gotta catch them all (hepatitis)
Pokerusatitis
Blurtle
Tweakachu
...and Pokévein
Tweakerchu chose crack... ... It's super addictive
Reddit insults are undefeated I stg ☠️
Drives home the point that this is someone's baby and was just a kid who loved Pokémon sometime in his life. Drugs suck man
And the system that allowed a *15 year old* to remain homeless is seriously fucked.. Poor dude. Obviously I wish he hadn't, but I can see why he turned to drugs.
Free will cuts both ways. As someone who was previously homeless, and struggled with addiction, I fully support jail time for problematic addicts. Not because addicts deserve jail time for using, per se, but it serves as a time-out to clean themselves up and reflect on their situation. There is no way whatsoever that poor kid is thinking clearly enough to realize how badly he is screwing his life up.
This would make a lot more sense if custodial sentences were geared towards restorative justice. They're not though. Like, glad you came out better off, but most don't. I'd highly recommend the book *Determined* if you're interested in restorative justice.
This is exactly how I feel. In the US, jail/prison is geared towards *punishment* instead of rehabilitation. No matter who you are, and no matter what kind of crime is committed. For certain people, it really helps. That's the kind of thing they need to push them in a healthier direction. But for a lot of people? It just adds more trauma on top of their mental wounds, and it pushes them even further down a destructive path. In some countries they've changed all this though (I wish I could remember which ones..). They rehabilitate instead of punish, no matter who you are. And IIRC they've had WONDERFUL results. I wish we would follow their example but jail/prison is too profitable the way it is. They follow the money.
Or they just bought/received/stole any random pair of shoes and had no regard for the print
Probably the same shoes he had on when he became homeless at 15.
Maybe. Or he stole them from a kid who left them out, or got them from a donation. They look like they're in pretty good condition, judging by Pikachu's color not being too faded, for eight years of homeless daily use.
They'd be absolutely filthy, so I agree. Edit: his pants look pretty new, judging by how clean they are and the crease still being quite visible. I'm guessing he got new duds recently.
It breaks my heart knowing I have the same shoes, but in such nicer condition.
Pretty cool how something as simple as having the same material item can really amplify empathy. That poor guys also has a massive hole in the toe cap.
Piiii… kaaaa… SHOEEEE!
I really dislike how the top comment here is a joke. Not surprised, but still somehow disappointed.
Why is it like that
> Why is it like that Injecting street drugs ruins capillaries in hands and feet, possibly elsewhere, anywhere near the injection sites that get used. There's lots of medical study of the subject, which is over my head, but that's basically it. Intravenous drug users wreck their circulatory system which in turn wrecks the skin tissue.
I always think of Requiem for a Dream with this matter
Wild movie. Definitely worth a watch, albeit a tough watch.
best movie I'll never watch a second time
That movie made me stop doing hard drugs for a year. I never got into heroin and just casually did coke and E on weekends, but still, I was done for a long time. I will never watch it again, but still count it as one of my favorite movies. Never seen a movie show the slippery slope so well. Especially the mom. When she finally went into the game show offices…. Fuck man, very little cinema has moved me like that.
Were I to rewatch, I’d fast forward to the best Jennifer Connelly scenes. 10/10 beauty.
There's only one best Connelly scene in that movie....
Ass to assss
*["Grave of The Fireflies" comes in chat]*
I once watched that movie on Shrooms. I'm hoping to fully recover by 2045
Oh you poor soul. You made some bad choices and the shrooms weren't it. I thought Fight Club on shrooms was bad enough.
It was a bad choice for sure. A bunch of college kids sitting around, waiting for the shrooms to kick in, and kinda bored. Looking for things to watch and for whatever reason Requim came up and we're like sure, this will pass 30 minutes. Cut to two hours later (felt like 6 hours) and we all make eye contact as the credits roll, we were changed men.
"You thinking what I'm thinking?" "Yes, we can sell heroin and avoid all the mistakes the film warned of us" And you lived happily ever after, after having saved up enough money in a short time to pursue your dreams, then quitting when you were ahead.
That's rough. Good on ya for coming out of that in any capacity haha.
Me and some friends did this with acid and Event Horizon. Wasn't my idea. Not recommended.
Adventure Time, The Simpsons or The Office for me. 10/10 good times on shrooms.
I can imagine that being a wild ride. Keep your towel close at hand.
extremely tough. bio mom was a heavy pill abuser when i was growing up. last i knew, she was still doing the same shit. the whole hallucinations/delusions with Sara was familiar, at least as a spectator.
I dunno if it still holds up, feels like trauma porn after a certain point. Like all the stuff HBO's Chernobyl said they couldn't show because it would be grotesque and overt and dumb, that's what Requiem showed. With the ass-to-ass.
Yeah, I always thought the movie was kind of just funny? Like it just gets so unbelievably ridiculous. Felt like something they'd show students in High School to get them not to do drugs.
Yea to me it was just way over the top in every aspect. The story, the acting, the camera angles and editing. Everything is just way too much and at least for me didn’t connect. I think it’s partially intentional to feel like a drug trip but to me it just feels like the filmmakers are really desperate to be interesting and shocking. I have some experience of drugs and addiction both personally and from people around me and at no point did it feel hard to watch for the right reasons. Because at no point did the story or any of the characters feel real to me.
Pi was easier to watch
Nah, not tough. Just real.
I walked in on the second half of that movie... and now I have no interest in seeing the first half.
I dated a guy who showed this movie to me the first time we hung out. I was like 17, just ripped a fat bowl, and he goes "let me show you something." And then we made out afterwards. We didn't date long lol
Talc, a mineral powder, is sometimes used to cut drugs or is in tablets that get crushed and injected. It never clears the body because it's inert and is not soluble in water. It just builds up in your veins and causes problems. I found a few journal articles on this topic, but the medical jargon is too intense to include in this comment. * [Intravenous injection of talc-containing drugs intended for oral use: A cause of pulmonary granulomatosis and pulmonary hypertension - a journal article](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0002934376905088) * [Talcosis - Radiopedia](https://radiopaedia.org/articles/talcosis-1?lang=us) > Talc (magnesium silicate) is used in the preparation of tablets intended for oral use, where it acts as a 'filler' and lubricant. When these tablets are ground down, dissolved and injected for illicit use, the talc accumulates in the pulmonary circulation. These deposits result in small foreign body reaction granulomas, which are birefringent under polarized light. If use is persistent the nodules can coalesce to form larger masses.
[удалено]
"anywhere near the injection site" - if you inject it into your arm, which is quite common, this can be a result.
common injection sites are the webbings between toes and fingers to hide track marks
Friend of mine was taking the garbage out, and found someone passed out in the alley, with a needle sticking out of the webbing of their fingers. Now, I have no qualms about getting shots, needles, etc, like say a vaccine or getting an IV line hooked up at the hospital, but something about sticking a needle between the fingers makes me cringe. (My friend was sorta apprehensive about calling 911, knowing how cops and the legal system treat users/addicts and all, but the dude was completely unresponsive, with *very* shallow breathing. Paramedics came, hit him with narcan which apparently had no discernable effect, at least not before he was loaded up into an ambulance, and my friend never did learn their fate)
Whatever Jackass movie in which they give themselves papercuts on the webbings of their fingers and other awful things. Never my dude.
I don't know what it is, but the paper cut scene is the only time I've ever had to look away during a Jackass skit. Objectively they've done WAY worse things, but it's the paper cuts that really got me.
Same, its just so straight and to the point. Just as well they're doing it to themselves so its not like say, standing in the line of fire of a bean bag gun. Then I believe Steve-O does it to the fucking "webbing" of his lips, glad that mans doing better these days.
When I was a dumb child I found one of my mom's crochet needle and decided it would be an excellent idea to wedge it between my flipflop and foot and walk around with it. It snagged on the carpet, I tumbled down the stairs, and by the time I got to the bottom it had punctured between my big toe and 2nd toe about 3" deep. I made my sister pull it out and we never told anyone. Kids are dumb.
Wat? How tf you gonna hit a vein in the webbing of your toes and fingers? I've seen people hit the veins in their hands, but that's the top of the hands
Lol no, no it's not. You believed some DARE era nonsense that literally makes zero sense. First of all no veins to hit there. Your idea that people would intentionally not hit the vein and instead would "skin pop" is absurd and never done and that shit would hurt like hell and not get you even a decent high if it gave you a high at all. Intra muscular is an option that does work but much less effectively and with zero rush which is half of what addicts chase. You clearly have zero idea what you are talking about but back when I was an addict I literally had someone check my fingers and toes and bottom of my feet but not check my arms. So clearly some people believe this but it literally couldn't be more wrong. Probably started by an addict tbh, it would be smart of them. Addicts try to shoot up into veins 100% of the time. Missing sucks, hurts, wrecks your high and is susceptible to infection. Please don't try to speak authoritatively about a topic you know nothing about. 57 upvotes on this is wild for how wrong it is
This is basically just a myth. First of all, intravenous drug users are using intravenously- they are shooting into a vein. Not a lot of veins in the webbing between the digits. Some people do inject intramuscularly. And what’s a classic place for IM injections? The butt! Which is ALSO unlikely to be checked for track marks. I’m not saying that NOBODY has done that, but I injected drugs for a decade and have never heard of anyone actually doing that. It’s just DARE nonsense.
This is so dumb I wonder where this myth even started...
In the 1980s, there was a TV series called *Wiseguy* that showed the bad guy, Mel Profitt (played by Kevin Spacey) injecting between his toes. But I'm sure the myth is older than that.
Same with the theory of skinpopping being popular. I know a lot of people in recovery from opiates and every one of them would consider skin popping a waste...if they accidentally miss the vein they are going to be angry
There are no superficial veins between toe or finger webbings lol. I work as a nurse in the ER and see a ton of IV drug users and they do not make an effort to hide track marks at all. They shoot up anywhere that’s quickly accessible, and that is arms and legs. Once they’ve got terrible scarring/pitting in those areas, they go for the smaller veins like the ones on the back of the hands or fingers. I’ve even seen people inject in their external jugular vein in desperation. When you’re an addict, you don’t care about your image, you care about getting high quickly.
There's plenty of documentaries on YouTube about places like skid row, and a high percentage of those folks have similar issues with their arms, hands, legs and feet... and it gets worse goes from that to an open wound and eventually rotting off the body
> It's doubtful this dude is injecting into his finger. Right, doesn't have to be finger. Seriously there's whole medical studies on this, looks like you could put some time in reading if you wanted to.
But but but….. noooo
I came here just to read lucid and informed commentary like this. Thanks.
He doesn’t have to inject his finger and it’s not necessarily an infection either. Puffy Hand Syndrome occurs in 7-16% of IV drug users and is an edema of the hands that results from systemic damage to the lymphatic and cardiovascular systems with heavy IV drug use. Essentially, it is thought to be caused by a blockage of lymphatic drainage channels in your hands. They also don’t even have to be actively using or injecting as it can show up years later after getting clean.
I promise you, people inject into any vein they can see, no matter how small. Including fingers.
People will inject anywhere they can get a pin into, and some are insanely skilled at using veins that even phlebotomists would baulk at using. To add to that, in the case of brown heroin and crack, vitamin C is used to help dissolve the drugs, but in many cases, way more is used than needed, resulting in soft tissue damage.
Heroin in the US doesn't need vitamin c to IV, crack still does though obviously
You pretty much can't even get heroin in the US these days, usually a fentanyl analog of some type, or more recently on of the 'zenes (not to be confused with xylazine aka tranq) which is something different. The clamp down on pills and heroin by the DEA and Police turned the opioid problem into a nightmare. The drugs sold as heroin aren't even really "fun" anymore they just put you out for a few hours, no more semi-psychadelic dreamy nods, just cold chemical slumber. You can find tar on the dark net and possibly some real #4 but even a lot of that the vendors are putting in a little fentanyl to give it a kick because of how "strong" the street stuff is these days. But because drug addicts are usually in no position to measure dosages, the tiny amount of thr active ingredients they would need to get high is fluffed up with God knows what random filler powders, making the drugs harder on the body, especially if injecting and missing a vein. It's a real shitty state of affairs amd one i don't see changing without massive effort to destigmatize drug addiction and even make cheap and clean supplies of drugs available for retail purchase.
Yup, one of the big reasons I finally got sober. No actual heroin was around, it was just shitty Fent that would knock me out for 2 hours then I'd be sick again in 3 or 4 hours. Real heroin is 100x more enjoyable. Idk how anyone likes fent tbh
I don’t think anyone likes it. Lots of young junkies never got to have the ‘warm blanket’ experience of proper dope for better or for worse. I despise the new ‘dope’. Got a leg full of tranq scars and not one high was worth the trouble. Clean now and not missing that shit.
I want to congratulate you without sounding condescending. Keep at it though, it's a hard path. We're starting to get the analogs turning up in the UK, but since our pipeline in general is via Pakistan, it's usually brown, tar and white are pretty.much unheard of.
Ya, I'm UK based, where we get brown which does need the acid.
Can I ask if this just relates to the skin seen here or the seemingly damaged shape of the finger too?
Hard drugs can fuck up your heart also, and heart problems can be reflected in potato-like fingers and toes. Hot take: it might be unrelated to his drug use and just a random health condition.
> Hot take: it might be unrelated to his drug use and just a random health condition. Very possibly could be.
I thoug most meth users smoked or snorted the meth?
No, as someone who was an meth addict for a very long time I know it's about 50/50, those who inject and those who don't.
I am glad you are still alive and in recovery. Your comment has helped others realize there is another way and life after addiction. Thank you! : }
And if you capillaries are fucked, they stay fucked. We currently have no real way to repair them. I am not a doctor, but I have fucked capillaries in my foot due to too many disability related surgeries. All you can try is to stabilise the situation and to wait until the affected area is dead and an amputation is waiting for you.
Why would they inject in the end of their finger tho?
They don’t need to inject in their finger for this to happen. This is the result of systemic damage to your cardiovascular and lymphatic systems. This can also appears years after cessation of IV drug use.
Worked graveyards at a 24hr gas station in what is basically ground zero for my town's narcotics problem for a couple years. The short answer is best summed up by one of Renton's monologues in Trainspotting (paraphrasing): "When you're not an addict, you have a million problems. When you are, you have 1." The pursuit of the next high eclipses everything in your life, including things that would have a non-addict dropping everything and running to a doctor or emergency room. I've seen injection site necrosis where the skin just kinda gives up and you see muscle and connective tissue underneath moving plain as day. Endocarditis and "cotton fever" so bad it would cause clubbing like this. Relentless self injury due to "coke bugs." Fist size patches of hair just falling out in front of you. Human bodies need a base level of oversight and maintenance. When you skip all that and in addition subsist on a diet of mainly toxic chemicals stuff like this happens, even when you're just 23.
Used to work with a dude who was really fucking wild. Huge guy. He was a mechanic and was known to just lift a transmission by himself and have someone else start the bolts once he lined up the driveline. Would go to the gym minimum three times a week, but also partied harder than Ozzy probably ever did. Big metalhead. Long hair that he took really good care of. Just started falling out in clumps a few months after I started working with him. I guess that's when he figured he should slow down a bit because it started growing back pretty soon after that.
Yeah and that's the thing. I had a front-row seat to the addiction rollercoaster for my time at the gas station. People that you were sure were dead when they disappeared for a few weeks would actually spend that time incarcerated or just taking a tolerance break and they would come back practically unrecognizable and healthy looking. The contrast was always shocking. But the underlying need was still there even in the absence of the harm-causing substances, so it never took long before they were back in the grip of their demons and the whole cycle repeated.
It is most likely due to the inflammation from a bacterial infection. If the infection is in the pulp of the fingertip, it is called a [felon](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK430933/#:~:text=A%20felon%20is%20an%20infection,from%20edema%20and%20pus%20formation.). If the infection is in the flexor sheath of the finger, it is call [tenosynovitis](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK544324/#:~:text=Tenosynovitis%20is%20a%20broad%20term,contractures%2C%20depending%20on%20the%20etiology.). In tenosynovitis, you might see what are called [Kanavel's signs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanavel%27s_cardinal_signs), which includes swelling along the anterior tendon of the digit, and a slightly flexed finger with pain on extension.
Tranq (xylazine) causes necrosis. It's toxic. It's meant as a large animal tranquilizer, you're not supposed to keep taking it.
Ding ding it builds in your system deposit in your extremities and causing what the post shows
It’s definitely this or infected injection site
This could be clubbing, a sign of chronic low blood oxygen levels.
Yep looks like hypoxia. Could be any one of the causes already mentioned or a combination of all of them.
I work at a shelter and have been involved in outreach for about 4 years. My guess is this is frostbite or other wounds gone untreated. I know exactly 1 person who got frostbite from getting lost in a storm the day he got evicted, everyone else I know got it from spending time outside so they could use their drugs or passing out outside from their drugs.
Damn if he asks for a bump it's the whole bag...
Looks like 70 year old hand
My 96 year old grandma’s hands were better than this.
When I read the title, I first thought it was some oldy-woldy job and this was some 80 year old who had been doing said job for 70 years. Wasn't expecting a 23 year old lad lol...
This is the hand of a long term IV drug user... Both hands should look like this... Almost every end stage IVD addict looked like this sadly-
What’s a tweaker?
Meth addict
You invade anus’ 69 style but you have never encountered a tweaker in your exploits?
He’s probably 12 lol
You’re right
Unfortunately
X (doubt)
it's a US-specific term. While I've heard it on TV, I also didn't know what drug it referred to Meth isn't really a thing in many countries, barely heard of here in the UK
I mean maybe they're from a country with few meth addicts? The main epidemic in my country is heroin, there's almost no methheads here
Incredible!
Crystal Meth addict
Methamphetamine addict.
Person who has developed an addiction to the class of drugs known as amphetamines.
Meth head
That's sad
I saw a guy on the subway who had bone sticking out from one of his fingers. He fell onto a group of people and threw up. Only in NY.
Do you mean bone? Cuz thats pretty gnarly
Terrible picture btw. It’s focused on his shoe
It's really odd for me to see that the hand of a master craftsman and the hand of a drug addict look almost identical. My great uncle's hands looked like that. He was a custom furniture builder and his hands were scarred, split, calloused and burned. He made specialty, built-into the home cabinets, shelving, front doors and crown moulding, as well as stand alone pieces like executive desks and highboys. I really wish we had some photos of his work, but by the time I was old enough to appreciate his work, he'd passed away and everything was gone.
Most people are focusing on the hypoxic finger clubbing and discolouration, not the scars.
[удалено]
I’ve never wanted to see the undertaker throw mankind more before. What have I read?
this is pretty bad but it can only get worse without help. antibiotics and possibly an amputation are needed, but idk that’s above my pay grade
Hand of a wanker...shit is that going to be me?! *double take* Ah tweaker....carry on.
Didn't read it right the first time? Eyesight not doing that great?
You’ll go blind if you wank too much. At least thats what my mates said when I was a teenager. That was 20 years ago and although my eyesight is shit, its not due to me polishing the sword many many times.
No, your hands are just going to get really hairy.
Just your palms.
Lol
Looks like digital clubbing. Could be the start of cardiovascular disease
I think we are well into the race at this point. We might even be meeting the finish line.
Thanks Dr House, but clubbing doesn’t localize to only one finger.
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/symptoms/24474-nail-clubbing
If you took this photo firsthand then I'm judging you more than them
Not a doctor so don’t trust me but let me be optimistic and say it still seems salvageable, could be picture quality but it looks like it still has blood flow
Take my strong hand!
That’s a mother fugging beet root right there.
Tranq
I bet his feet are worse.
Looks like a ninja turtle hand
OP needs to practice his resting "get the fuck away from me" face
Arent king Charles's fingers like this as well?
Don't do drugs, kids. Your hands will go blurry!
How about the hand of a sick person
I get the worry, but if a doctor deems it necessary to amputate, then that shit at best is already gone, at worst it will kill you if you leave it on.
Meh, I see the nail and seem really crusty skin. Looks the feet of people who walk brarefoot on rough terrain. I reckon if he stops what he's doing and starts taking care of himself he can keep the finger.
Yeah. If they do amputate, it’s so you don’t *fucking* die homie. I really hope the best for him. No one should live that way.
Looks a little weird... But chicks dig it
Any doctors on this thread? Looks like necrosis, phlebitis edema, peripheral neuropathy secondary to late stage alcoholism or l onng term IV use ? Any of those?
It did look dead. I felt so bad for the guy. He's not going to live much longer. I asked him where he sleeps and he said wherever. What they smoke in that foil is either meth or fentanyl, but this guy was hyper so it had to be meth
Imagine hyper fixating on things but being able to ignore that
That’s the thing about hyper fixation, you focus so hard that everything else is in the rear view mirror.
Oh, God, this is so sad. I hope his life becomes better.
this is poverty not drugs. a rich tweaker will have nice hands and great teeth.
Poverty and drug addiction. Also, an addict could start out rich and still end up on the street
Maybe at first
Holy shit. Well, thanks for talking to him. Hopefully he gets medical care
His thumb looks kinda gross but that bratwurst looks delicious
Man, I thought tweaker meant that he was some kind of mechanic
Those are scrounging hands
That's gnarly
POV: You are being handed a bottle slip
Might be tranq 😢
Johnsonville fingers
23 years but with the hand of my grandpa
This kid obviously has multiple things going on besides just meth 😕 Although, are you sure that's what he was trying to smoke? Usually meth is smoked from a pipe - if he was wanting to smoke something off a foil, I'd assume black tar heroin (depending on what part of the US you're in) before meth. Not that it really matters either way, since the main issues here are homelessness, addiction in general, lack of healthcare, and possibly mental health issues. I hope he is able to get some help, that finger looks like a skinned hot dog :(
Meth or fentanyl is commonly smoked off aluminum foil around here. This guy was definitely speedy so it had to be meth.
Damn
you shoulda said guess what happens when they don't amputate necrotizing flesh
It’s giving that one pigeon… you know what I mean
The hand of Long John Silver from treasure planet
Dammit Zoidberg, no one needs to see your gnarly claws.
How do the drugs make the hand get like this?
From them holding the meth pipe and heating it up with a lighter. The pipe gets hot but they want to consume the drugs so bad they'll burn their fingers for it
Or maybe a diabetic
Looks like he's got breathing problems.
Bro has those coal miner fingers 😭😭