preview

Heroin

Good Essays

Heroin is known as morphine diacetate or diamorphine when it is used in medical environment, it is also referred to as “black tar” among other names in colloquial language. Alder Wright was the first person to synthesize heroin in 1874 when he added two groups of acetyl to morphine molecules (Rubin, 2013). Heroine is an active drug which can also be used in medicine to treat severe pain that results from heart attack or injuries; it is absorbed in the body as morphine. According to Levert (2005), the word “heroin” is only used when discussing it in illegal form. Heroin is made from opium- a substance produced from the poppy plants’ resin and it is the raw material for heroin, the opium is further processed to make morphine and then …show more content…

The National Survey on Drug Use and Health reported that most drug users share needles that they use to inject themselves with while using heroin. Sharing of needles by heroin users is due to the fact that doctors and many pharmacy boards are not allowed to sell needles and syringes to unauthorized personnel, so the only avenue left for drug users is to share the available needles they have. This has contributed to spread of HIV aids among the heroin victims therefore exposing them to more health dangers. Infact, 30% of global HIV infections in Sub Saharan Africa are caused by sharing needles during drug injections, furthermore, heroin injection rose from 2% in 1993 to 15% in 2000. Heroin users and other drug addicts have been reported to be more exposed to unsafe sex a fact that have exposed them even more to these diseases. This analysis shows that heroin and drug use are among the factors that are causing HIV aids to increase in the world (Levert, 2005).
Heroin not only affects people using the drug but, the problems also affect other people close to them too, it has an immense trickle down effect on society. The cost to the society is immense as indicated by the financial implications and the excessive use of healthcare resources to rehabilitate heroin addicts (White, 2009). The society also uses vast resources on funding law enforcement to

Get Access