Drug lingo filter

January 26, 2009 4:49 PM

Drug lingo question. I overheard my niece (out of rehab for less than 1 year) talking to her boyfriend last night. The part of the conversation that I heard was "...did you get the slides? If you didn't, I'm going to have to boil the sh*#, and that's friggin' expensive!". Should I be worried? Anyone know what the hell she might have been talking about?
posted by richmondparker to grab bag (29 comments total)

Is she taking a microbiology course?
posted by 517 at 5:02 PM on January 26

No, not in school right now.
posted by richmondparker at 5:03 PM on January 26

Getting the slides means to relapse.
posted by ageispolis at 5:08 PM on January 26

Well, the ONDCP's street terms website doesn't list "slides" anywhere.
posted by Stewriffic at 5:13 PM on January 26

Oooh. Urban Dictionary:

5. slide 35 up, 19 down love ithate it

a bowl shaped piece with a tube attached to the bottom that gets placed into a bong used for smoking marijuana. when a person can no longer suck in air, or hit, the bong it gets taken out to "clear" the bong of all smoke and then gets placed back in for the next person.
Jordan hits the bong like a champ and doesn't have to remove the slide for a long time.
bong hit marijuana clear smoke
by cmv Jan 1, 2006 share this add comment
posted by Stewriffic at 5:16 PM on January 26

Stewirrific, I doubt that's what she was talking about.

Also on Urban Dictionary.

I've also heard it used for as slang for the basic unit of a substance, like an 1/8 of hydro would be referred to as a slide if that's the standard quantity it's sold in. Not sure if I've heard the term slide used for harder drugs that you boil though.
posted by ageispolis at 5:17 PM on January 26

Could be referring to honey slides. Marijuana that's toasted, cooked and mixed with honey. Either way, she is referring to drugs, which she should not be doing if she just got out from rehab.
posted by scarello at 5:27 PM on January 26 [1 favorite]

I'm going to have to boil the sh*#, and that's friggin' expensive!

She could be talking about cooking powdered cocaine (soft) down into crack (hard) which is more expensive than just buying crack. "Slides" I can't help you with, although in context it does not sound she is referring to relapse because you don't need someone else to "get" a relapse for you.

She could also be talking about a science experiment, an art project or a hundred other things that have nothing to do with drugs.

Should I be worried?

Besides giving you fuel for your worry how will getting a definitive answer about what she was talking about help either you or her? When dealing with a loved one's addiction the most important thing to remember is that nagging, monitoring, and worrying will do little to nothing to affect the outcome. Your niece will get and stay sober when her desire for sobriety unequivocally outweighs her desire to be high and not a moment before. All the treatments, rehabs, and lectures in the world will not change that. The best thing that you can do for her is to let her know that she is loved and supported and you are proud of her efforts toward sobriety.
posted by Bango Skank at 5:34 PM on January 26 [5 favorites]

i've only ever heard the term "slide" referring to the removable bowl of a bong, a la stewriffic

and as for the boiling -- some stoner friends of mine would boil their glass pipes to clean them of all the resin that accumulates from smoking day in, day out.
posted by fancyoats at 5:47 PM on January 26 [3 favorites]

She could also be talking about a science experiment, an art project or a hundred other things that have nothing to do with drugs.

I think we can all be a little more realistic and acknowledge that she is more than likely not referring to any of those innocent things. Although I do agree with most of your answer, I don't see anything wrong with the OP getting a better understanding of the type of behaviour that may indicate a drug relapse in his niece. Having the info he needs to handle the situation should it become worse, is essential.
posted by scarello at 5:51 PM on January 26 [2 favorites]

I would be worried, yes. Sorry I can't be much more specific than that, but forget what everyone else her is saying in reference to pot/relapses. Talk to her.
posted by sunshinesky at 5:54 PM on January 26

Back when I was in college our circle of friends had their own slang terms for illicit substances that would not have meant anything to anyone else. Maybe it is just something they came up with so everyone else (you) would be like, "What the heck are they talking about?" So yeah, I'd guess they're talking about drugs. Especially with the line about boiling.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 6:36 PM on January 26 [1 favorite]

But boiling being expensive doesn't make much sense, drugwise. It's no more expensive to "boil" cocaine to make freebase than it is to use ammonia or ether-- in fact, the opposite is true. It's possible she's talking about buying powder v. buying crack itself-- but that wouldn't be more expensive necessarily (all depends on quality and quantity) and it doesn't make sense with the "slides" if that means crack because then what would be the "shit" to boil?

I suppose this could be something to do with a process to make meth with which I am unfamiliar-- and yeah, people do make up their own terms all the time.

Best thing to do is simply ask. While you can't *make* someone get clean, you can help them make the connection between using and bad consequences (not by forcing consequences, but by helping them see them better) and probably more importantly, helping them link recovery with feeling better and having a better, less constricted life. Too many things that try to help addicts focus on deprivation and on what they have to give up-- what works better is helping them see what they will attain.
posted by Maias at 6:48 PM on January 26

It might help a little to know what her drug of choice is/ was- if she had one. Perhaps her slang or code would begin to make more sense in that context.

I, too, would be very suspicious/ concerned. But, try to remember, ultimately you can't control whether or not she relapses and you will find out sooner or later if she has- with or without a translation of the overheard snippet.
posted by hellboundforcheddar at 7:01 PM on January 26 [1 favorite]

Guessing that "slides" might be a term for needle, but the bit about boiling being expensive doesn't make a whole lot of sense, whether she is boiling needles for sterility or cooking drugs (I don't know how that makes anything more expensive, you have to cook them when you shoot up no matter what). Though I wonder if you are mis-hearing. I would ask her if she's using again.
posted by oneirodynia at 7:18 PM on January 26

Yeah, the bong thing is out, because boiling your paraphernalia doesn't really cost you anything, other than time/patience.

In a drug context, the only general idea I can think of in terms of "boiling" being "expensive," is something to do with "boiling" the product itself. Perhaps "boiling" is also slang for some other process.

The only drug I can think of off the top of my head that even deals with real boiling (granted, my knowledge in this general arena is limited) is boiling poppies down to extract opiates. But again, why would that be expensive? Why would actually boiling any product be expensive? If anything, it would be cheaper, because you're likely taking on part of the process further up stream, that you'd otherwise have to pay for someone else doing, to give you something closer to an end-product.

Anyway, sorry for all the speculation; I don't really know anything concrete, but hopefully these ideas will help.
posted by Brak at 8:34 PM on January 26

Concerning a bong: you wouldn't have a vast quantity of slides, one per bong is all, and boiling them doesn't cost more than a kettle of water. Same thing goes for glass pipes, cleaning them n boiling water isn't "friggin' expensive!" So she isn't talking about that.

Scarello's mention of honey slides might be accurate, although I've never heard the term before... good way to get around the issues of smoking weed while still getting a buzz, and the alternative being to boil weed with an oil substance (e.g. butter) so that the THC binds to the oil, which can be expensive if you're using good stuff (or cheap if you're using shwag) but also makes your house stink like a skunk, so she'd be doing that process somewhere else.

To be honest, you don't say what she was in rehab for, but if it was for anything more serious than weed than you should be thankful she's just looking for a simple buzz and its not something dangerous, weed should be the nicorette gum of rehab patients. Of course I don't know the whole story.
posted by furtive at 8:37 PM on January 26

Maybe you misheard her, and she really said I'm going to have to buy it.
posted by longsleeves at 9:12 PM on January 26

I was also going to suggest that maybe you misheard her. Are you 100% sure that she said the words slide and boil? Regardless of what words she used, in context of the sentence, it does sound like something drug-related.
posted by fructose at 9:32 PM on January 26

It would also be useful to know if the boyfriend did any drugs, if he still does drugs, and/or if he is supporting your niece in her rehab efforts. If he is still taking drugs, she should probably not be spending a lot of time with him (although, of course, if you try to keep her from hanging out with him that is also a recipe for disaster).
posted by Deathalicious at 10:26 PM on January 26

Also, could she have said, "Did you get the slides? If you didn't, I'm going to have to buy all the sh*#". In which case "slides" could mean, well, slides. And her frustration could be that he is supposed to be helping out in the purchase of something slides-related.
posted by Deathalicious at 10:29 PM on January 26

When dealing with a loved one's addiction the most important thing to remember is that nagging, monitoring, and worrying will do little to nothing to affect the outcome.

This is absolutely true. You can spend all day trying to figure out what you heard, but in the end..what are you really going to do about it? She's done her rehab, she has the tools, but if she doesn't want to use them, there's really nothing you can do.
posted by The Light Fantastic at 11:43 PM on January 26 [2 favorites]

I don't know the first thing about boiling, slides, cocaine, or crack. But if you put together answers from ageispolis ("the basic unit of a substance... the standard quantity it's sold in") and Bango Skank ("cooking powdered cocaine (soft) down into crack (hard) ... is more expensive than just buying crack"), what you have is:

"...did you get the [multiple basic purchase units of crack]? If you didn't, I'm going to have to boil [cocaine down to make some], and that's friggin' expensive!"
posted by salvia at 12:00 AM on January 27

Stupid question: if I have the more valuable cocaine, why would I want to reduce it in value into crack?

The way I heard that line was in the context of purifying something. "Did you get the slides" so we can examine the stuff? If we can't, "I'm going to have to boil it, and that's expensive."
posted by gjc at 3:55 AM on January 27

How old are they?

Another explanation is that boil and expensive are slang:

boil #4: Convert printed data (books, journals and so on) to digital format using a scanner.
expensive #2: Something that takes a lot out of you. (Monetarily, physically, or mentally!)

So she'd have handouts of powerpoint 'slides' that she wants to digitize, which would be 'expensive' if she had to 'boil' them. Without being in school I'm not sure why she'd be doing this though. Work? A seminar she attended?
posted by jwells at 6:45 AM on January 27

Stupid question: if I have the more valuable cocaine, why would I want to reduce it in value into crack?

Once someone is hooked on Crack - plain ol' coke won't do it for them anymore. Coke might be more valuable by weight - but crackheads smoke a hell of a lot more of it per user.
posted by The Light Fantastic at 12:35 PM on January 27

Yeah, boil makes me think of cleaning bongs or cooking up heroin. I've known people who shoot up with Mountain Dew or gutter water. You cook cocaine into crack, you cook heroin to get it to dissolve into the liquid, meth doesn't need that. THC extraction is best done with ether, starter fluid if you can't get the medical stuff or freon if you're not a tree-hugging-hippie.
yeah, sorry, drugs and lingo.
posted by zengargoyle at 1:07 PM on January 27

I don't think it's the boiling process that's expensive, but rather the "shit" (which she'd prefer not to boil because maybe that decreases the amount or purity or something). Maybe the "slides" are a different way of purifying or partaking in the drug.

Those glass pipes that addicts smoke crack out of look just like bong slides. So maybe she's calling crack pipes "slides", and saying that if they can't smoke the drug out of the crack pipes, then she's going to have to boil it into rocks in order to imbibe it in another way. But that the stuff is too expensive to imbibe that way.

I dunno, that's a reach. I think you'd have to have it in rock form to smoke it out of the pipe anyway.
posted by thejrae at 1:36 PM on January 27

OK, so we had "the talk", and it turns out that I garbled the conversation a bit. She was, however, talking about the slide on a bong and having to boil it. Many more talks to come, I'm sure...

Thank you all.
posted by richmondparker at 5:43 AM on January 28