Heroin



What are the street names/slang terms for it?
Big H, Black Tar, Brown Sugar, Dope, H, Horse, Junk, Mud, Skag, Smack

What is it?
Heroin is a highly addictive drug derived from morphine, which is obtained from the opium poppy. It is a "downer" (or central nervous system depressant) that affects the brain's pleasure systems and interferes with the brain's ability to perceive pain.

What does it look like?
White to dark brown powder or tar-like substance.

How is it used?
Heroin can be used in a variety of ways, depending on user preference and the purity of the drug. Heroin can be injected into a vein ("mainlining"), injected into a muscle, smoked in a water pipe or standard pipe, mixed in a marijuana joint or regular cigarette, inhaled as smoke through a straw, known as "chasing the dragon," snorted as powder via the nose.

The hype:
"You feel like you’re floating" and "Everything is perfect."

The reality:
"Heroin makes you into a junkie - you’ll be totally controlled by the drug. You will get hooked the very first time you use it" and "It's so not a 'cool' drug - the stark truth is that one use will quickly turn to a hard, ugly addiction and it will completely wreck your life."

What can happen while you're high?
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. Other effects included slowed and slurred speech, slow gait, constricted pupils, droopy eyelids, impaired night vision, vomiting, and constipation.

What can happen long term?
Long-term effects of heroin appear after repeated use for some period of time. 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.

Source:
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)

Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA)

National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)