Question About Bleaching Needles

pretty simple question. i'm trying to bleach some needles, but i only have a little bit of plain bleach left. i do,however, have a full bottle of bleach with lavender scent. can i use this, and wash thoroughly to get rid of any residue, or will this pose problems when using the needles down the line? i understand the dangers of the needle game, but i ask in the name of harm reduction. sources cited would be a great bonus. thank you!

 

you should just get some replacements at a needle exchange.. bleaching will remove the lubrication, before you know it, you have a shot thats jammed in there cause the plunger is stuck..

sure if you want to use bleach even lavender bleach go on.

 

i always try to have fresh rigs, i have a couple packs sitting next to me right now, but i keep a stash of re-sharpened "emergency needles" for those times when... well, we all know those times

 

if your the only one using them(recommend you dont share em,,rinse your rigs in water with just a little bit of bleach..

 

i generally go three squirts water, three squirts bleach, three squirts water to clean it out. but i wanted to make sure the lavender scent wasn't going to give me parkinson's or something. you just never know.

and i never share rigs with anyone. i payed attention in D.A.R.E. ^.^ just for me

 

if u have a rig that ur unsure about, make sure you let the bleach sit inside for a while. ive seen rigs that have a little bit of blood in the plunger by where it goes into the the needle that won't rinse out very well which means the bleach has trouble penetrating.

make sure you rinse well with water to make sure all the bleach is gone, 3 times should be enough, but i'd probably rinse more myself just to be sure.

 

i was thinking about filling a bowl with bleach and just pulling all the plungers out and soaking the syringes open with the plungers separate so everything gets a nice thorough germocide going on. then give everything a real nice thorough rinse and good to go. now, i resharpened these rigs the old-fashioned way with a matchbook striking strip, i have to imagine there's a more professional manner. any ideas on that end?

 

u could do that, i would make sure to at least pull some up thru the needle once to make sure it gets inside the needle well. let them soak for a few minutes. be careful of course when you get the syringes back out of the bowl. i have this vision of the needle pit from saw II in my head .. :yikes:

and about ur question of scented bleach, i can't think of any reason why that would be an issue if you rinse the syringes and everything really thoroughly with clean water. obviously having any bleach left over would be bad whether it was scented or not.

 

word, good point on making sure the bleach gets inside the... uh... point. that scene gets me every time 0.0

 

is there anything you can use as an alternative to bleach, ammonia for instance? some of the stuff i've read says isopropyl alcohol works fairly well.

 

Or, you could just keep a bigger stash of clean needles, and not keep any nasty fucked up ones that will cause more injury and potential infection....

 

the needle can get like a barb on the end even after only being used once or twice. its kinda like the barb on a fish hook, and it rips a big hole in ur veins. the barb gets worse and worse until eventually the rig is impossible to get to register, thing is some people will keep poking themselves with it making their veins angry.

 

think we've all seen the microscope shot of the needle that's been used 6x and the barb. i'm just trying to get the extras less nasty and fucked-up as i can.

 

sounds easier to me to just not use needles.....and ultimately safer in many respects

 

i know, i know. think of it as a hypothetical. i'm primarily interested in hard information regarding my questions.

 

Not judging, offering advice in interest of harm reduction.
Any time you consume a more refined version of a substance and/or through a faster mode of administration; needles, smoking, then the risk and likelihood of addiction goes up exponentially.
So regardless of any health issues with the needles themselves, just that route of administration is a slippery slope, whether it's opiates, amphetamine or cocaine.

 

Just get fresh rigs. Don't keep an emergency stash of old ones. Negative bacteria and things can get on old ones. Trust me, using old rigs or them to often will fuck your veins up. Rotate spots too for gods sake. I have a few collapsed veins some of which won't come back from shooting heroin cocaine and all kinds of other stuff. I'm happy I'm past that point in my life. I'm not judging I know how tough it is

 

ok, bleach will deactivate HIV if you use full strength bleach. i'm not sure about Hep C but Hep C is harder to kill.

i don't know any alternatives that are known to work for sure. bleach works for sure, u won't get HIV but its still a bad idea to use a needle from somebody that has AIDS.

just keep a stash of fresh rigs, that way you don't run out of rigs and get in that situation. replenish the rigs as they run out before you run all the way out, some pharmacies only let you buy one 10 pack at a time which is a bitch.

 

Thank you for the replies everybody. I think you guys have pretty much covered everything I needed to know on this particular subject (for the moment anyway). I'm not going to say I'm gonna go immediately throw out my emergency stash... but I did smurf away a couple extra bags of rigs for a rainy day ^.^.

The pharmacies around here let you buy at least a couple of bags at a time, which is good because I'm still a wee little chippy and I'm trying out the different gauges and lengths and such, though I am a tad concerned with the pharmacist who fills my scripts seeing me buying needles without a diabetes script in sight and contacting my doc. Cue throwing my bud five bucks to pick me up a pack -.-

 

If this happens and you cant get a different or new set , you can use the striker part on a book of matches to gently rub on the barb - 2 stokes usually will get rid of it so at least its useable after you run some hot water thru it- -
-then get rid of it -You will keep pokin,and even if you get a hit ,it leaves a nasty mark. Do this enough times and you,ll have some ugly tracks....