'Bluetoothing' The New Trend of Injecting Blood to Get High

The possibility of a new way of injecting drugs into the bloodstream in a bid to get high is more recently being talked about among medical experts.

The practice of bluetoothing is a way of withdrawing blood after a hit and injecting it into a second person.

Though no reports have been made to Police of such cases, medical experts are not ruling out the possibility of it being done in Fiji given the rising cases of Human Immunodeficiency Viruses (HIV) or Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) in the country.

During the mini-convention of the Fiji Medical Association in Nadi over the weekend, president Dr Basharat Munshi explained: “I cannot quantify a number or how many, but we know that these practices do exist, and they are very dangerous.

“If you are sharing a needle with a group of people and one of them has HIV/AIDS then you are putting the whole group that is sharing that needle at risk,” he said.

“It could be any injectable drug, like heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, and others.

“From what we gather, it’s mainly the younger generation, but it could also be older people.”

He said the practice of injecting blood into another without the proper medical procedures could be deadly.

“We cannot inject one person’s blood directly into another,” he said.

“We have certain blood groups, and if your blood group is incompatible, you can die from this practice.

“You can have what we call an anaphylactic reaction or an allergic reaction.

“It must immediately be discouraged and stopped if people are doing this.”

Assistant Commissioner of Police Crime (ACP) Mesake Waqa said while Police had not received any official reports, it could not rule out this practice.

“The commonly known methods of drug abuse in Fiji are sniffing, injecting, and smoking,” he said.

“However, information has been received that abusers have adopted another method (of injecting drugs into the bloodstream).

“Based on the increase in the number of drug cases where syringes are being seized, and taken into the forensic chemistry lab for detection of illicit drugs, it can be said that there is an increase in the number of drug usage cases where people are injecting themselves,” he said.

He said some syringes did have visible traces of blood, which could suggest that the practice of bluetooth was definitely being carried out by some drug users.

“We continue to call for support in the war on drugs, as the solution lies within the community,” ACP Waqa said.

“Trends will keep changing, but if we continuously advocate for the dangers of drugs from every available platform, it can have a positive impact on current efforts,” he said.

Drug Free World Fiji founder Kalesi Volatabu said bluetoothing had been practiced in Fiji; however, it was not yet reported to the Police.

“It’s not just youths engaging in this, this is across the board,” he said.

“I knew of this a few months ago.

“What we need to be asking is where are they (illicit drug users) are finding these crystals both in urban and rural areas, even as far as Naitasiri.

“What we need to do is not just talk about what to do but actually implement a constructive approach.

“In South Africa, back in 2017 or 2018, they were doing this.”

In Johannesburg, South Africa

In 2018 British broadcasting station SkyNews aired how, in the slums of Johannesburg in South Africa, the new method of drug-taking was catching on.

Addicts were taking nyaope (pronounced un-yop-pay), a cocktail of heroin, antiretroviral drugs and even crushed glass and rat poison, by injecting it, pulling blood back out, and taking it themselves.

Users talk about their aching joints, the vomiting, and the way their stomachs buckle and cramp.

If they have the money for a fix, they will buy a wax paper packet from one of the dealers and sprinkle its contents into a marijuana cigarette - or simply find a place else to inject it.

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