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Heroin is an
illegal, highly addictive drug. It is both the most abused and the most
rapidly acting of the opiates. Heroin is processed from morphine, a
naturally occurring substance extracted from the seed pod of certain
varieties of poppy plants. It is typically sold as a white or brownish
powder or as the black sticky substance known on the streets as “black
tar heroin.” Although purer heroin is becoming more common, most street
heroin is “cut” with other drugs or with substances such as sugar,
starch, powdered milk, or quinine. Street heroin can also be cut with
strychnine, fentanyl or other poisons. Because heroin abusers do not
know the actual strength of the drug or its true contents, they are at
risk of overdose or death. Heroin also poses special problems because of
the transmission of HIV and other diseases that can occur from sharing
needles or other injection equipment.
First synthesized
from morphine in 1874, heroin was not extensively used in medicine until
the early 1900s. Commercial production of the new pain remedy was first
started in 1898. It initially received widespread acceptance from the
medical profession, and physicians remained unaware of its addiction
potential for years. The first comprehensive control of heroin occurred
with the Harrison Narotic Act of 1914. Today, heroin is an illicit
substance having no medical utility in the United States.
Heroin can be
injected, smoked, or sniffed/snorted. Injection is the most efficient
way to administer low-purity heroin. The availability of high-purity
heroin, however, and the fear of infection by sharing needles has made
snorting and smoking the drug more common. National Institute on Drug
Abuse (NIDA) researchers have confirmed that all forms of heroin
administration are addictive.
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Smack, thunder,
hell dust, big H, nose drops, junk, horse, H, white stuff, dope, powder,
sugar and scag
Intravenous users typically experience the rush within 7 to 8 seconds
after injection, while intramuscular injection produces a slower onset
of this euphoric feeling, taking 5 to 8 minutes. When heroin is sniffed
or smoked, the peak effects of the drug are usually felt within 10 to 15
minutes. In addition to the initial feeling of euphoria, the short-term
effects of heroin include a warm flushing of the skin, dry mouth, and
heavy extremities.
Heroin laced with fentanyl and other poisons have been known to cause
death within hours.
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Chronic users may develop collapsed veins, infection of the heart lining
and valves, abscesses, cellulites, and liver disease. Pulmonary
complications, including various types of pneumonia, may result from the
poor health condition of the abuser, as well as from heroin's depressing
effects on respiration. In addition to the effects of the drug itself,
street heroin may have additives that do not really dissolve and result
in clogging the blood vessels that lead to the lungs, liver, kidneys, or
brain. This can cause infection or even death of small patches of cells
in vital organs.
One of the most
significant effects of heroin use is addiction. With regular heroin use,
tolerance to the drug develops. Once this happens, the abuser must use
more heroin to achieve the same intensity or effect that they are
seeking. As higher doses of the drug are used over time, physical
dependence and addiction to the drug develop.
Withdrawal, which
in regular abusers may occur as early as a few hours after the last
administration, produces drug craving, restlessness, muscle and bone
pain, insomnia, diarrhea and vomiting, cold flashes with goose bumps
(“cold turkey”), kicking movements (“kicking the habit”), and other
symptoms. Major withdrawal symptoms peak between 48 and 72 hours after
the last dose and subside after about a week. Sudden withdrawal by
heavily dependent users who are in poor health is occasionally fatal,
although heroin withdrawal is considered less dangerous than alcohol or
barbiturate withdrawal.
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Four
foreign source areas produce the heroin available in the United States:
South America (Colombia), Mexico, Southeast Asia (principally Burma),
and Southwest Asia (principally Afghanistan). However, South America and
Mexico supply most of the illicit heroin marketed in the United States.
South American heroin is a high-purity powder primarily distributed to
metropolitan areas on the East Coast. Heroin powder may vary in color
from white to dark brown because of impurities left from the
manufacturing process or the presence of additives. Mexican heroin,
known as "black tar," is primarily available in the western United
States. The color and consistency of black tar heroin result from the
crude processing methods used to illicitly manufacture heroin in Mexico.
Black tar heroin may be sticky like roofing tar or hard like coal, and
its color may vary from dark brown to black.
Pure
heroin is rarely sold on the street. A "bag" (slang for a small unit of
heroin sold on the street) currently contains about 30 to 50 milligrams
of powder, only a portion of which is heroin. The remainder could be
sugar, starch, acetaminophen, procaine, benzocaine, or quinine, or any
of numerous cutting agents for heroin. Traditionally, the purity of
heroin in a bag ranged from 1 to 10 percent. More recently, heroin
purity has ranged from about 10 to 70 percent. Black tar heroin is often
sold in chunks weighing about an ounce. Its purity is generally less
than South American heroin and it is most frequently smoked, or
dissolved, diluted, and injected.
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Among
students surveyed as part of the 2005 Monitoring the Future study,
1.5% of eighth, tenth, and twelfth graders reported lifetime use of
heroin.
Approximately 61.4% of eighth graders, 72.4% of tenth graders, and 60.5%
of twelfth graders surveyed in 2005 reported that using heroin once or
twice without a needle was a "great risk."
The
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also conducts a survey
of high school students throughout the United States called the Youth
Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS). Among students surveyed for
the 2005 YRBSS, 2.4% reported using heroin at least one time during
their lifetimes. |
