Heroin
Samantha Garza
COM/172
02/29/2012
William Pinney
Heroin
“She was in a coma. She suffered brain damage and was paralyzed from the neck down; her one-time heroin use left her needing around-the-clock care.” (Bubala 2011, pgs. 1-2). This is an example of what Heroin can do to a young adult who tried the drug for the first time. Although Heroin may be a satisfying new experimental drug to young adults, Heroin is an addictive drug that destroys the human body, and can kill chronic users. The topics to be discussed in this essay are: What is Heroin, the bad effects Heroin has on the body, and what Heroin can lead to.
What is Heroin? According to The Partnership (2011), “Heroin is a depressant that
…show more content…
When concerning Heroin; HIV, Hepatitis, and AIDS are caused by the use of sharing needles used to inject Heroin (Pg. 1). Michael’s House (2012) explained that “studies have shown that high percentages of HIV and Hepatitis cases come from shared needle use.” Michaels’s House also stated that the use of Heroin can make a person catch a bad viral sickness such as Tuberculosis, (TB) and pneumonia. The reason for a user to catch a viral sickness is because of the immune system. The immune system fights off disease and infections, but by using Heroin it causes the immune system to slow down. Therefore, the body will be weak and the user can become very ill. Like the writer has mentioned before about the dangerous effect is becoming addicted, it makes the user want more of the drug and will try everything in his/her power to make sure he/she gets a high. Clogging of the blood vessels that leads to the brain, kidneys, liver, or the lungs is due to the Heroin not dissolved. This effect can cause infection and it may lead to death. The Partnership (2011) and Stop Heroin (2008-2012) explains the short-term effects of Heroin use. The short-term effects appear after the use of Heroin and usually disappear a few hours later. If injecting Heroin, the user will start to feel a rush and a warm flushing sensation of the body followed by a dry cotton mouth. After using Heroin and feeling the effects, the
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.
Heroin use has changed over the years. Injection is the best way to administer higher levels of heroin in the body. Along with cocaine users, heroin users also fear contracting the AIDS virus from needles. The fear has led heroin addicts to snorting the drug thru the nasal passages and smoking the drug. Heroin is highly addictive and is one drug many have a hard time withdrawing from and staying clean. Withdrawal from heroin can sometimes take several weeks or months. Respiratory depression, nausea, and other health problems related to opioids are normal health problems associated with heroin use.
After Heroin is injected or inhaled, it crosses the blood brain barrier, and once in the brain, it is converted to morphine and will bind with opioid receptors. This transferring is what gives the user their rush, and the more of the drug, the faster it binds and the stronger the rush. Heroin
Heroin provides a rush feeling in the brain which is can be accompanied by the following symptoms; a warm flushing of the skin, a dry mouth, and a heavy feeling in the extremities. The following side effects often present themselves nausea, vomiting and severe itching. After the initial effects of heroin have faded, abusers will be drowsy for several hours. With heroin the individual's mental function is often clouded because of the drugs effect on the central nervous system. Long term abuse of the drug can result in respiratory and cardiac functions slowing this are often the cause of death in heroin
“Heroin has analgesic and euphoric properties” (Abadinsky, 2014, p. 45). When the drug is taken and enters the body, heroin relieves pain, works as a sedative, decreases one’s anxiety, relaxes muscles, slows motor activity, drowsiness, and a feel of well being (Abadinsky, 2014). When taken, heroin will typically start to work within ten seconds, depending the method used to ingest the drug (Abadinsky, 2014). Most users will take a needle full of heroin after he or she cooked the powder into a liquid, and injected through the skin into a vein (Abadinsky, 2014). Heroin can also be smoked by inhaling the fumes like when marijuana is smoked (Abadinsky, 2014). There are four different stages that can occur when a person uses heroin, including the rush, the high, the nod, and being straight (Abadinsky, 2014). The rush is when the user experiences multiple types of euphoric feelings, instinctive sensations, a flushed face, and deeper vocals (Abadinsky, 2014). “Heroin activates brain systems that are responsible for reinforcing peoperties of such natural rewards as food and sex” (Abadinsky, 2014, p. 45). The high is a feeling of well-being that can last for hours, but the high can be less effective depending on the user’s tolerance to the drug (Abadinsky, 2014). Therefore, if a user has a high tolerance to the high, he or she must increase dose size in order to experience the effects of the high (Abadinsky,
Heroin has been a quiet crisis on the rise over the last few decades, wreaking havoc on communities and families. Hesitance to talk about the heroin crisis makes it difficult to fight the growing trend of abuse. According to the National Household Survey on Drug Use and Health, the increase of heroin abuse has risen 80 percent since 2002 (Jones). The medical effects of addicts abusing their bodies and neglecting their health are a variety of medical conditions. A short term abuser may experience depressed respiration, distorted mental functioning, nausea and vomiting (Volkow). The long term effects of heroin abuse can be addiction, infectious disease as in HIV, hepatitis B and C, collapsed veins, bacterial infections, abscesses and infection of the heart
The social effects of opiate addiction are felt by those who may have never even seen more than an image of heroin. For example; “In an early study, for example, Inciardi reported that a cohort of 239 male heroin addicts from Miami committed 80,644 criminal acts during the 12 months before being interviewed (Inciardi, 1979).”. (Strain and Stitzer, 2006) In part, this is due to the problems associated with the severe withdrawal symptoms that begin about 18 hours after the last use, and the result that addicts will do almost anything to avoid them. These include sweating, vomiting, insomnia, cold sweats, pain in the limbs, yawning, sneezing, severe bone and muscle aches, diarrhea, stomach cramps
Chronic use of the drug can cause collapsed veins from injection, heart infections, abscesses, constipation, gastrointestinal cramping, and liver disease. Street heroin is known to contain additives that can clog the blood vessels that may lead to the lungs or brain. This can lead to infection in the cells of vital organs. If used heavily and then stopped, withdrawal symptoms will occur, causing the user to become restless, have drug cravings, muscle and bone pain, diarrhea and vomiting, cold flashes, insomnia, and kicking movements. Withdrawal symptoms typically occur between 24 to 48 hours after the user's last dosage and usually subside after a week (Types of Prescription
Today, in society, there has been a huge rise in the amount of deaths due to heroin overdose and addiction. Heroin and opiate addiction is something that needs to be recognized within our society in order to help protect one another. In this essay, I will explore the different methods of treatment, health insurance issues, and how the addicts affect the society. Information involving treatment for heroin and opiate addicts needs to be more prevalent in society because we do not hear much about how to treat addicts until something goes wrong. With knowing that there are these issues in society, information about treatment and help needs to be addressed more affectively in order to prevent death and other health issues from occurring. Insurance is also a major factor that goes along with treatment, and I believe that treatment and other rehabilitation programs should partially be covered by health insurance in order for the whole process to be affordable. All of the educational parts of these issues go untouched because it is not talked about in many societies; in a news article by Dan Dearth he discusses the concerns of many police officers within the area of Washington County, MD. The police officers believe that Heroin is the up and coming drug that is going to affect many citizens, and there is no education about how Heroin affects an individuals body and mental stability. Therefore, the educational part of this situation needs to be introduced more within the society
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
In a short term perspective the user talks about a “rush” of pleasure. Depending on the the intensity of the rush show how fast the drug enters the brain and binds to the MORs. With heroin, the rush can be associated with flush and warm skin, heavy sensation of extremities, reduced feeling of pain, and drowsiness. Sometimes these effects can also come with vomiting, itching and dry mouth. After several hours of the initial effects the user body slows. This includes the heart, mind and breathing, which can be life threatening. (What Effects) If slowed enough the user could fall into a coma causing severe brain damage.
Withdrawal symptoms can include muscle and bone pain, sleep problems, diarrhea and vomiting, cold flashes with goose bumps, uncontrollable leg movements, severe heroin cravings (“Heroin”).
Heroin is bad. That should not come as a surprise. What might come as a surprise, on the other hand, is that America is currently going through a heroin epidemic. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Heroin use more than doubled among young adults aged 18-25 in the past decade.” However, heroin addictions do not arise ex nihilo. The silent perpetrators are pharmaceutical companies and their weapons are prescription painkillers.
Best Answer: Heroin is a highly addictive opiate which is derived from the opium poppy. The method used to milk the poppy is to take a razor blade and cut vertical slits on the poppy bulb and to collect the milky white opiate liquid. It is the greatest cash crop of Afghanistan. The liquid is then refined into pure heroin powder and is shipped in one kilo "bricks" and smuggled into consuming countries. The bricks are diluted into about a 2% heroin solution for street sale. Heroin is a depressent and affects the primitive part of the human brain which controls the involuntary responses such as respiration and breathing. Heroin powder is heated in a spoon and melted into a liquid and injected directly into a vein usually along the inner elbow