chase the dragon v.
1. (drugs) to smoke heroin, sucking up the smoke of the drug, which is burned on a piece of kitchen foil. The heated heroin liquefies and flows across the paper, gradually giving off smoke, which is sucked into the smoker’s lungs by a tube, also usu. made of kitchen foil.
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | ‘Whisper All Aussie Dict.’ in Kings Cross Whisper (Sydney) xxxiii 4/3: chase the dragon: To inhale heroin or sniff cocaine. | |
| Sun. Post-Herald 1 July 1: All around me were burning candles the addicts use to light their silver papers to chase the dragon. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Bk of Jargon 340: chasing the dragon: A method of taking heroin originated in Hong Kong, involving inhaling fumes from a heated heroin-barbiturate mixture; named for the mixture’s snakelike appearance and movement as it is heated. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Blood Posse 181: What you doing? Snorting? Chasing the dragon? Skin popping or in the veins? | |
| Source Oct. 154: They found a skull-faced old-timer [...] ‘chasing the dragon’ – heating number 3 heroin on foil and inhaling the smoke from the melted heroin through rolled-up paper. | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | Scotland on Sun. Mag. 7 Nov. 17: When I started taking drugs, I was smoking heroin, chasing the dragon. | |
| Guardian G2 29 Jan. 5: Prison is [...] a place where a young pot-smoker can learn to chase the dragon. | |
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 40/2: chase v. chase the dragon 1 to take heroin by inhalation rather than by injection, using the following method. | |
| ‘Tales from the Hood’ 🎵 Go home and chase the dragon. | |
| Killing Pool 22: Bit of whizz, bit of dope. Bit of H [...] Just chasing, nothing regular. | |
| Happy Mutant Baby Pills 218: We decided to mix shooting with smoking. Chasing the proverbial dragon. | |
| ‘Could Have Been’ 🎵 I ain’t chasing a dragon like feins on a foil. / I’m chasing my dreams, queens heads in the royal. | |
| Straight Dope [ebook] [S]hooting up wayward brown girls, teaching his producer how to chase the dragon. |
2. (US prison) to look for a supply of heroin.
| Other Side of the Wall: Prisoner’s Dict. July 🌐 Chasing the Dragon: Looking for heroin on the yard. |