Chasing the dragon

"Chasing the dragon" (a slang phrase of Cantonese origin from Hong Kong, Traditional Chinese: 追龍, Simplified Chinese: 追龙, Cantonese Jyutping: zeoi1 lung4, pinyin: zhuī lóng) refers to inhaling the vapor from heated morphine, heroin, oxycodone or opium that has been placed on a piece of foil. The 'chasing' occurs as the user gingerly keeps the liquid moving in order to keep it from coalescing into a single, unmanageable mass.^[1] Another more metaphorical use of the term "chasing the dragon" refers to the elusive pursuit of the ultimate high in the usage of some particular drug.

Technique

There are many ways to "smoke" heroin, but a common method involves some black tar heroin, 2 rectangular pieces of aluminium foil, a lighter and a cigarette. First, the entire surface of the aluminium foil is heated with the lighter to burn off possible toxic coatings. Then a tube is made by wrapping one of the pieces of foil around the cigarette. Heroin is placed on the other piece of foil, and the tube is placed in the mouth. Now, repeatably the heroin is melted and boiled, and the rising heroin vapor (the dragon) is inhaled with the tube. The boiling, of the heroin, is done by applying heat, with the flame of the lighter, to the underside of the aluminium foil. When heat is applied just left of the heroin above, the liquid heroin will move right, leaving behind a trail of impurities. A significant part of the heroin vapor will get stuck to the inside of the tube, which after some uses can be unwrapped and "smoked".

"Chasing the dragon" as an ingestion method has been accomplished with various vaporizing apparatus, including traditional opium pipes. A makeshift method involves putting the substance in an empty teapot, heating it over a stove, and inhaling through the nozzle via the nose or mouth.

Health

Such ingestion may pose less immediate danger to the user than injecting heroin, due to eliminating the risk of transmission of HIV, hepatitis, and other diseases through needle sharing, as well as the stress that injection puts on veins. A small puff can be inhaled as a method of gauging the strength of the heroin.^{[citation needed]} Also, the lungs can act to filter out additional pollutants that otherwise would pass directly into the bloodstream; however, in any case, it is never harmless to expose the lungs to any kind of smoke and inhaling heroin itself may lead to toxic leukoencephalopathy.^[2]

Metaphorical

The metaphorical meaning of the term alludes to the feeling that the next ingested dosage of the drug will result in a nirvana that seems and feels imminent and conclusive, yet upon consumption never quite yields the promised experience—leading to the desire for the next dose that still promises the same—thus chasing the dragon but never catching it (like "chasing after the wind [a wild wind]", a biblical term^[3]). Medically speaking, this sensation is a common aspect of drug addiction in which psychological and physical drug tolerance causes a diminishing return curve in the user's enjoyment of the drug. Here, the "dragon" represents the user's best euphoric experiences with the drug (usually due to novelty and inexperience), but with the positive effects diminishing (and often being replaced with negative effects) over time with each consecutive experience, causing the user to fruitlessly "chase" harder and use more of the drug in order to try and recapture the initial euphoria. It may also refer to the user "chasing" the smoke that flows in the space between the tube and the foil.

In popular culture

Main article: Chasing the dragon in popular culture

• Title of multiple films - from different genres, but usually involving drug addiction.
• A 1996 Lifetime Network Television movie was called Chasing the Dragon; it starred Markie Post as a middle-class mom who becomes addicted to heroin.
• The autobiography Chasing the Dragon, by missionary Jackie Pullinger. recalls how she went to Hong Kong to help drug addicts quit "chasing the dragon" through Christian teaching and prayer.
• Chasing the Dragon is a Led Zeppelin bootleg recording of a concert at Memorial Auditorium, Dallas, Texas on March 4, 1975, released by Empress Valley label.
• "Chasing the Dragon" is the title of various songs by rapper Ill Bill, American glam metal band L.A. Guns, Dutch symphonic metal band Epica, Australian rock supergroup Beasts of Bourbon, Wan Kwong, Dream Evil, Machine Gun Fellatio and 90's Christian band Code of Ethics.
• The title of Urge Overkill's album Exit The Dragon references the act of exhaling heroin smoke (as well as the Bruce Lee film Enter the Dragon). The front cover is a picture of (presumably) exhaled smoke. The song "The Mistake", a warning to "beware the overdose", contains the lyrics, "Never gonna make it today/Until you finally exit the dragon". Ex-drummer Blackie Onassis is a known heroin addict and was fired from the band for his addiction.^[4]

References

1. ^ Frank Dikotter, Lars Laamann & Zhou Xun, Narcotic Culture: A History of Drugs in China (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004), 162.
2. ^ Chasing the Dragon from Radiopaedia.org.
3. ^ Biblical mentions of "chasing the wind", BibleGateway.org
4. ^ John Tracey (2007). "Urge Overkill Feature: A Rock Star Runs Errands". The Spill Magazine Online (Toronto). http://www.spillmagazine.com/nxne.html#overkill. Retrieved February 2009. 

External links

• ANNEX 1 From 0 to 600 centigrade in 2 seconds Chasing the dragon
• Heroin smoking by 'chasing the dragon': origins and history
• How to Smoke Heroin