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Q: What is heroin?
A: Heroin is a highly addictive, illegal drug. On the street,
it is also called "Junk," "Smack," "Horse" and "H." Heroin belongs
to a group of drugs called opiates. It is made by adding chemicals
to morphine, a natural substance found in opium poppies. Codeine
also comes from poppies. Other opiates that come from opium poppies
are found in the drugs Percodan7 and Percocet7 and some cough syrups.
Q: What does heroin look like?
A: Heroin is a white or brownish powder. It can be a fine powder
or lumpy. Whatever it looks like, it can also contain other things
like sugar, other drugs or even poison like strychnine.
Q: How is heroin used?
A: Heroin can be injected by needle, snorted or smoked. It can be
added to regular cigarettes or marijuana joints.
Q: What does heroin make you feel?
A: Heroin makes people feel intense pleasure and reduced pain (morphine
which is the source of heroin is used in hospitals as a pain killer).
When it is injected, people can feel the effects of heroin
in about seven seconds. When smoked or snorted, the effects are
felt in about 10 minutes.
Q: What are the effects of using heroin?
A: People who use heroin can feel sick to their stomachs or vomit.
They can also get itchy, sleepy and start breathing very quickly.
The pupils of their eyes become smaller. Large doses can slow a
users breathing so much that they can slip into a coma and die.
It is difficult to know the strength of street heroin, so overdose
and death can easily happen. Heroin users who share needles
risk getting infections including hepatitis and HIV B the virus
that causes AIDS.
Q: What happens if heroin is used often over a period of months
or years?
A: Injecting heroin regularly can cause the addicts veins to collapse.
Smoking it often can lead to pneumonia and other lung problems.
Whether it is smoked or injected, heroin can make the user lose
their appetite to the point where they just dont eat and suffer
malnutrition. Constipation is also common. Women can have irregular
periods and men may develop some sexual dysfunction.
Q: Is heroin addictive?
A: Big time! Heroin is highly addictive and addicts will
do almost anything to satisfy their habit. When heroin is used regularly,
they start needing more of it to feel the same effects as when they
first started. This is called tolerance and it leads to addiction.
Addicts can't cut back or stop using heroin because they feel so
bad when they try. All they think about is how to get more heroin.
Besides making it harder to quit, heroins addictive power also makes
for a horrible withdrawal. When an addict quits, they start going
through withdrawal in a couple of hours. It starts quickly but it
certainly doesn't end quickly. Depression, weakness and stress can
last for several weeks or months. Besides that, withdrawal can include
restlessness, yawning, runny nose, tears, diarrhea, cramps, goose
bumps, low blood pressure and strong craving. These effects get
stronger for two to four days, and then gradually weaken.
Q: What is methadone?
A: Methadone is a painkiller used to treat heroin addicts and help
them kick their habit. It is sometimes called AMeth@ and is usually
taken as a liquid. Because they are given methadone legally and
because it blocks out the effects of heroin, addicts no longer need
heroin. The effects of methadone also last longer than heroin. This
means addicts can begin to put their lives back together because
they no longer need to spend all their time in a desperate search
for more heroin. Methadone is also addictive but, because it is
given under professional supervision, addicts can slowly stop taking
it and have help dealing with their withdrawal.
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