Heroin
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Years
ago, thoughts of using a needle kept many
potential heroin users at bay. Not anymore.
Today's heroin is so pure, users can smoke it or
snort it, causing more kids under 18 to use it.
Kids who snort or smoke heroin face the same high
risk of overdose and death that haunts intravenous
users. Yet 40% of high school seniors polled do
not believe there is great risk in trying heroin. |
Recent
studies suggest a shift from injecting to snorting or
smoking heroin because of increased purity and the
misconception that these forms of use will not lead to
addiction.
Heroin
is processed from morphine, a naturally occurring
substance extracted from the seed-pod of the Asian poppy
plant. Heroin usually appears as a white or brown powder.
Street names associated with heroin include
"smack," "H," "skag," and
"junk." Other names may refer to types of heroin
produced in a specific geographical area, such as
"Mexican black tar."
The
short-term effects of heroin abuse appear soon after a
single dose and disappear in a few hours. After an
injection of heroin, the user reports feeling a surge of
euphoria ("rush") accompanied by a warm flushing
of the skin, a dry mouth, and heavy extremities. Following
this initial euphoria, the user goes "on the
nod," an alternately wakeful and drowsy state. Mental
functioning becomes clouded due to the depression of the
central nervous system.
Reports
from the Drug Abuse Warning Networks (DAWN) Annual Medical
Examiner Data from 1997 show that heroin/morphine was the
top-ranking drug among drug-related deaths in 14 US major
metro areas. It ranked second in another eight.
According
to DAWNs Year End 1998 Emergency Department Data, 14
percent of all emergency department drug-related episodes
had mentions of heroin/morphine in 1998. From 1991-1996,
the number of heroin/morphine mentions more than doubled.
Health
Hazards
Irreversible
effects.
Heroin abuse is associated with serious health conditions,
including fatal overdose, spontaneous abortion, collapsed
veins, and infectious diseases, including HIV/AIDS and
hepatitis.
Long-term
effects.
Long-term effects of heroin include collapsed veins,
infection of the heart lining and valves, abscesses,
cellulitis, 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.
Infection.
In addition to the effects of the drug itself, street
heroin may have additives that do not readily 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.
Information
provided by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
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