Heroin Facts

Heroin

COMMON & BRAND NAMES

Dope, Junk, Smack, H, Big H, Boy, Capital H, China white, Chiva, Dead on arrival, Diesel, Eighth, Good H, Hell dust, Horse, Mexican horse, Mud, Poppy, Smack, Thunder, Train, White junk, Skag, Nose Drops

EFFECTS CLASSIFICATION

Euphoric Depressant; Analgesic

CHEMICAL NAME

diacetylmorphine

DESCRIPTION

Heroin is a powerful opiate derived from morphine, its a pain-killer that produces euphoria and blissful apathy. It is known for leading to addiction and very difficult physical withdrawal symptoms. Heroin is the most widely abused and most rapidly acting of the opiates. Intravenously-injected heroin causes a rush of powerful euphoria lasting a few minutes, followed by sedation lasting a few hours. Heroin usually appears as a white or brown powder or as a black sticky substance, known as “black tar heroin.” Heroin use can cause death by respiratory failure. Several factors can increase the risk of overdose, including the strong tolerance effects that develop with repeated use. Tolerance effects wear off over time, and users who take a break may find that a previously-safe dose is now dangerously large. The purity of street heroin is also highly variable (and may have risen in recent years) and users often do not know how much heroin they are taking.

EFFECTS

The effects of heroin vary greatly depending on the quality of ingredients, type of administration, the person, and the dose. Following the initial euphoria, the user goes “on the nod,” an alternately wakeful and drowsy state known as “nodding out”. Mental functioning becomes clouded due to the depression of the central nervous system.

After an injection of heroin, the user reports:

• nausea
• sedation
• vomiting
• slow gait
• dizziness
• analgesia
• blackouts
• relaxation
• dry mouth
• constipation
• droopy eyelids
• constricted pupils
• heavy extremities
• feeling of well-being
• impaired night vision
• warm flushing of the skin
• slowed and slurred speech
• feeling a surge of euphoria (”rush”)

Long-term effects of heroin:

• cellulites
• abscesses
• liver disease
• collapsed veins
• effects on respiration
• Pulmonary complications
• various types of pneumonia
• infection of the heart lining and valves
• clogged blood vessels that lead to the lungs, liver, kidneys, or brain

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