Abstract
This paper considers the object of the syringe-in-use for IV drug users. Via an engagement with performative stories of the “rush” I suggest this object experience concerns not a conditioned effect but the materiality of the syringe itself. I also suggest that an analysis of the rush as a technical materialization challenges existing interpretations of heroin use. In particular, it challenges understandings of the syringe as an object that threatens a coherent body image, gender identity, and sexed differences.