Heroin: Opium Poppy

Heroin is a painkilling drug that is made from the Papaverum Somniferum, also known as the opium poppy plant. All opiates are addictive painkillers. Heroin starts as a milky sap of the opium poppy. The sap is then dried and becomes a gum. After washing the gum, it becomes opium. Morphine and codeine are two painkilling alkaloids that

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 itself can be taken in three ways, injecting a solution of heroin and water into your vein, snorting it, or inhaling it. A person will receive maximum effects if they inject it. Basically heroin makes people feel as if they are in a state of Euphoria for a small amount of time, and cause people to be drowsy warm and content, which kind of detaches you from pain.

The drug was first created in 1898 as a medicine to relieve pain to those who were suffering from illnesses. However, it was eventually pulled from the market due to its severe and unwanted side effects. Heroin is made from a milky substance found inside the poppy plant. Pure heroin is as much as eight times stronger than that of morphine (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2017).

“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,

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

Heroin is a white or brown powder. Sometimes it’s a black paste that's known as black tar heroin. Heroin is wicked by many other drugs, sugar, flour and milk. It may have a vinegar smell to it. People who do heroin usually snort or smoke it. There is also an option to inject the drug into your body. It costs $70 to $300 a gram. “In the brain, heroin is converted into morphine, which binds to opioid receptors. This causes a pleasurable "rush," and a user's skin becomes warm and flushed. The user's arms and legs may feel heavy. Some users experience severe itching and vomiting. After the rush, a user's heart rate and breathing slow down, sometimes to the point of death. Heroin is considered highly addictive. Euphoria occurs within seconds of an intravenous injection, five

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 is an opioid drug that is synthesized from morphine.” Morphine is a type of pain medication which heroin comes from. Heroin comes from opium. Opium goes way back to the industrialization era. Europeans used opium also known currently as heroin to drug the chinese and one of the biggest drug dealers was queen Victoria. They drugged the chinese because they wanted to get what they needed from them, but they did it in a very unfair and dangerous way. They put the life of so many chinese in danger and cause them to create an addiction to

Heroin is named after the German word for hero, heroisch. It was first made by C. R. Alder Wright in 1874 by adding two acetyl groups to the molecule morphine, a natural product of the opium poppy. Heroin is an illegal, highly addictive drug. It is both the most abused and the most rapidly acting of the opiates, about two to four times more potent than morphine and is faster in its onset of action. It is processed from morphine which is a naturally occurring substance extracted from the seed pod of certain varieties of poppy plants. It is typically sold as a white or brownish powder or as the black sticky

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

Heroin is an opiate. Opiates are common drugs that are used as painkillers for terminal disease. To make heroin, they collect the resin from the poppy flower pod and dilute that down into morphine. The morphine is then further diluted to make heroin. There are multiple ways heroin can be taken, the notorious “black tar heroin” is boiled down and injected directly into the bloodstream. There is what's know as “Hell Dust” which is a white or grey powder that is snorted, and some heroin can even be smoked. Even though there are many ways to take it, they all have the same effects. The problem with buying heroin off the street is what it is cut with and the needles that are used. If you use a dirty needle you can get AIDS or other diseases that are transmitted through blood. Also street heroin can be cut with rat poison or ethanol. The poison then procedes to create blood clots that can travel around the bloodstream killing off vital organs. Another strong point against buying street heroin is dosage. You never know how strong that specific dosage is.

Heroin is an addictive, illegal opioid painkiller derived from morphine. This analgesic drug produces stress-relieving effects along with a sense of euphoria. Addiction to heroin generally begins as an addiction to another substance: marijuana, alcohol, cocaine, or prescription painkillers. Overdose on heroin can cause many complications including coma and death. This risk is commonly increased by combining heroin with alcohol or by cutting it in with other drugs. Injection of heroin also puts one at a significantly increased risk of contracting HIV, Hepatisis, other disease carried in the bloodstream (CDC, 2015). According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (2015), 8,200 people died from heroin-related overdose deaths in the United States in 2013. This number has been climbing steadily over the past decade and continues to climb today within certain demographics and age groups.

Heroin is a illicit drug that is highly addictive. Heroin can be called dope, smack, junk, skag, brown sugar, H, horse, Mr. Brownstone, Dr. Feelgood, Charley, or China white. It is processed from morphine, a naturally occurring substance that is taken from the pod of seeds of certain types of poppy plants. Usually sold as a white or brown powder that is cut with different substances such as sugars, starch, powdered milk, or quinine. Heroin that is completely pure is a white powder with a nasty bitter taste. It comes from South America and from Southeast Asia. Heroin can be smoked, snorted, or injected. There is other heroin used that is known as “black tar”. This substance is sticky that is made in Mexico and distributed here (What is Heroin).

Heroin is derived from raw opium, a liquid material extracted from the pod of the poppy flower. Initially a milky substance, once extracted from the poppy flower, the liquid opium turns into a dark, sticky material. The dark, sticky substance is then boiled in barrels of water with added lime. While any waste from the product sinks to the bottom of the barrel, a white layer of morphine gathers at the top of the barrel. Once the top layer of morphine is collected, it is reheated with ammonia prior to boiling the substance again, resulting is a brown paste like product. The paste product is then laid out in the sun for it to dry. Although it is possible to smoke the heroin product after this drying phase, it is most commonly put through additional processing to solidify and purify the product. According to Recovery.org, these additional processes include adding acetic anhydride to morphine and boil the mixture for several hours, adding water and chloroform and then drain the mixture, filtering the heroin with activated charcoal and then add alcohol to purify it, and finally adding either ether or hydrochloric acid to the mixture. The end result is a fluffy, white powder. While heroin is produced in approximately 50 different countries around the world, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime the top producers of the drug are Afghanistan, Laos, Mexico and Myanmar. The heroin supply to the United States comes primarily from Columbia and Mexico, being brought in through Arizona, California, and Texas.