Heroin : A Dangerous Addictive Drug

Heroin, a powerful narcotic, acts upon the brain as a painkiller, increasing physical addiction and ongoing emotional dependence (Schaffer Library of…). Heroin has many challenging and highly risky effects on the user, all the more hazardous if overdosing is present. This extremely dangerous drug, heroin, will never cease being used, but may cease the existence of an individual.

This paper is intended to educate those who almost nothing about heroin and those who use it. Many people have been associated with friends or families who have used some kind of drug. There are many people who have not had any contact with heroin users or if they have, don’t understand much about it. Using various sources about heroin to explain where it came from, how it is used, who uses it and how a person starts on the path towards heroin, preventing addiction, and global issues surrounding this drug. Although the topic of heroin is inexhaustible, it is my hope to spark reader’s curiosity. Knowledge of this drug might just help the reader join in on discussions about heroin.

Heroin, a white powder, was created in 1874, and was sold as a safe substitute for morphine. However, it was discovered that heroin produced a quick dependency in people. Heroin and other opiates were made illegal in 1920 as part of the Dangerous Drugs Act. Still today, however, Heroin is illegally manufactured and imported, largely from the Indian sub-continent.

Heroin overdoses, have become a bigger issue over the last few years. Heroin is made from morphine, which itself is a very powerful and addictive drug. In an article on nlm.nih.gov they found that around .6% of people between the ages of 15-64 use heroin. About 23 percent of people who use the drug become dependent on it. Overdoses frequently involve suppression

Heroin addiction is one of the leading killers of adolescents and adults in the United States. In recent years, addiction has skyrocketed, and “the rate of heroin-related overdose deaths increased by 286 percent between 2002 and 2013.” In 2002, “100 people per 100,000 were addicted to heroin, and that number has doubled by 2013” (The National Institute on Drug Abuse 2013). The most affected populations include low income males, adolescents, and those who have a family history of addiction, due to their increased susceptibility and crime-ridden environment. While it may seem as though heroin addiction is “just another drug problem” in the U.S., it is actually a problem of major public health importance because there are numerous physical, economic, and social risks associated with heroin dependence. Heroin dependence in the United States accounts for brain damage, increased homelessness, crime, and incarceration rates, as well as economic decline.

In the US, according to CQ Researcher, the number of those that used heroin had more than doubled between the years of 2002 and 2004 and doubled again between 2011 and 2013. It is a growing issue especially due to

A heroin overdose is generally a familiar, yet taboo, subject in today’s culture. It is familiar because one can witness the drug’s devastating effects like crime, imprisonment, and death within their community. It is taboo because it is culturally unacceptable and embarrassing to use an illegal product. Heroin overdoses have become a huge epidemic in Northwest Ohio, due in large part, to a misinformed culture, an influx of pain management programs, mixed drug toxicity, and a user’s desire to abuse laced heroin. With doctors, scientists, and researchers desperately searching for an answer to why heroin addiction is so prevalent, our community can find relief by being properly informed on

Since the early times, opiates, heroin, and other drugs have been used in providing analgesia as well as substitutes to reach a place of euphoria. Originally, as Yurgelum-Todd et al (2009) has noted, derived from the opium poppy, heroin has been used as an alternative to morphine in dealing with addiction (Yurgelum-Todd, p. 175, 2009). Unfortunately, over the years it has consistently become prevalent that heroin has more negative aspects than anything; heroin is highly addictive, resulting in consequences such as overdoses, infections, violence and crime, deficits in memory, learning, and

Arielle Duhaime-Ross (2015) concludes, “ [In today’s world] those who are most at-risk for heroin dependence are non-Hispanic whites, people between the ages of 18 and 25, Medicaid recipients, men, people who don 't have health insurance, and people who make less than $20,000 a year” (p.1). Though these are the typical stereotypes for heroin users, heroin addiction can affect any human being no matter their age, wealth, or gender. Straight-A students, millionaires, and people with no history of drug abuse ever before, are all potential candidates for drug addiction. Heroin does not care if your friends miss you being sober, or if your family loses sleep each night wondering where you are. People do not think that one time does anything detrimental, but it can and it will.

The heroin epidemic is striking the United States rapidly and despite many efforts made, it cannot be contained. Heroin is an opiate drug that is synthesized from morphine, a naturally occurring substance (“DrugFacts: Heroin”). It can be injected, inhaled by snorting/sniffing, or smoked (“DrugFacts: Heroin”). It is a deadly drug that is killing people daily everywhere, striking people of all ages including teenagers and adults. Although heroin is illegal, people still obtain the drug. The addiction strikes with one use. Heroin use is a serious issue and needs to be stopped with efforts from people within the community and more efficient funding.

Heroin was introduced by a German chemical company around 1874 and ¨ was imported into the United States shortly after it was invented. The sales pitch that created an instant market to American doctors and their morphine addicted patients was that Heroin was a “safe, non-addictive” substitute for morphine.¨ (International,2016) Our bodies

Heroin addicts have the psychological dependence on heroin that leads them into the state of self-destruction and the possibility of leading to death by the extreme use of heroin. Never estimate the poppy flower for its power that withholds the fiends to their mentality enduring the euphoria enslavement of the mind that contained for many centuries. The heroin addiction nation is a self numbing injection and dry approach to have the mind under the state of the greatest feeling of great happiness leaving the pain behind under the spell of heroin. Heroin comes in many forms for addicts to enjoy in their own way. They come in powder and rock like form that is combined with other narcotics. The snorting form for heroin is not

In general, Heroin is bad and less commonly useful in medical treatments otherwise increase the cases of heroin epidemic and healthcare institutions like to use other methods of administration until there is high requirement because after serving, it converts to morphine by the mean of first-pass metabolism and resulting in deacetylation when ingested in the body of the person. For instance, drug like OxyContin has impacted and had become heroin epidemic ravaging and could be seen in America. Its impact also depend on the type of ingestion and in past, it has many bad results where youngsters used for the intense pleasure since it floods the brain and its immediate unpleasant side effects and an example as Eve has threaten her own life. In this condition, it was difficult for her

Heroin is illegal and highly addictive. (Dupont, 1997). It remains as the most common drug among drug, among all the opiates (Lalander, 2003). The opiate is made from morphine. Morphine occurs naturally in seed pops of various poppy plants. In most cases, it is sold as a brown or black sticky powder. Currently, purer forms of heroin are becoming more common in the streets today (Research Council of Norway, 2013).

5. Heroin is a highly addicting drug that cause irreparable damage to the body and their families, here is the molecular structure of heroin(Image by Royal Society of Chemistry, 2015) More and more young adults have become victims of heroin overdoses in the past 10 years, why? In recent new accounts, this crisis has been attributed to bad batches of this illegal drug coming from various sources. In Ohio the Heroin epidemic has put law enforcement and law makers on the alter to combat this dilemma, by working with the community and other entity to safe guard the well being it citizens.