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Heroin abuse is associated
with serious health conditions, including fatal overdose, spontaneous
abortion, collapsed veins, and infectious diseases, including HIV/AIDS
and hepatitis.
 Short
Term Effects:
The short-term effects of heroin abuse appear soon after
the first 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.
Long Term Effects:
Long-term effects of heroin appear after repeated use. Chronic
users typically develop 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.
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.
Reports from SAMHSA's 1995 Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN), which
collects data on drug-related hospital emergency room episodes and
drug-related deaths from 21 metropolitan areas, rank heroin second
as the most frequently mentioned drug in overall drug-related deaths.
From 1990 through 1995, the number of heroin-related episodes doubled.
Between 1994 and 1995, there was a 19 percent increase in heroin-related
emergency department episodes.
T olerance,
Addiction, and Withdrawal:
With regular heroin use, tolerance develops. This means the
abuser must use more heroin to achieve the same intensity
or effect. As higher doses are used over time, physical dependence
and addiction develop. With physical dependence, the body has adapted
to the presence of the drug and withdrawal symptoms may occur if
use is reduced or stopped.
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
much less dangerous than alcohol or barbiturate withdrawal. It is
not recommended a user try to withdraw without help, it can be dangerous.
Source: National Institute On Drug Abuse.
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