The Harmful Disadvantages of Heroin

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.

There is no cookie cutter heroin user. In fact, many of heroin’s newest addicts are in their teens or early 20s; many also come from middle- or upper-middle-class suburban families. Heroin is a dangerous drug that has many different “street names” such as Smack, Mud, Dope, Dragon, and Junk. The scientific names are diacetylmorphine or morphine diacetate, also known as diamorphine.

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

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

Often referred to as the “devil’s drug”, heroin in today’s society holds responsibility as one of the top killers next to murder, suicide, and car accidents. From 2002 to 2013, the number of deaths by heroin has quadrupled. In 2007, approximately 2,000 lives were taking by heroin, and these numbers increased to 8,000 by 2013. Heroin has affected thousands of people lives and killed many at an alarming rate; it now holds a spot as an epidemic in the United States. In a poem by an anonymous author, the effects of heroin are described explicitly, “If you try me, be warned this is no game. If given the chance, I’ll drive you insane. I’ll ravish your body; I’ll control your mind. I’ll own you completely; your soul will be mine.” Thousands of

Heroin has been around since the 1960s’. It was first used as a cure for tuberculosis and soon became a bigger problem. Many people have died from the use of Heroin because of the fact that they do not know how much heroin can affect hem. Sure it will make the feel good the first time they take, but once your body becomes dependent it can be a very time consuming and painful experience. Crime rates have and are slightly increasing because of the use of Heroin. Heroin should not be used due to the fact that it affects your mental and physical health, and it has the ability to lead to many horrible symptoms due to it.

All heroin users—not just those who injected the drug—risk becoming addicted. Individuals who abuse heroin over time develop a tolerance for the drug, meaning that they must use increasingly larger doses to achieve the same intensity or effect they experienced when they first began using the drug. Heroin ceases to produce feeling of pleasure in users who develop tolerance: instead, these users must continue taking that dug simply to feel normal.

ruining not only the lives of users but also the lives of the people around them. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the national number in the United States of heroin overdose deaths in 2014 alone was around eleven thousand, a number that is six times higher than it was only fifteen years ago in 2001, and it continues to rise. The issue of heroin is growing not only nationally but even locally in central Illinois, and is an undesirable epidemic that should not only be recognized as a pressing local issue, but also a dangerous street narcotic that has negative life-changing consequences that affect an individual personally and affect others indirectly.

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 one of many opioid drugs used for its euphoric effects. When doctors or other medical professions use it, it is mostly used as a pain medication. It is usually given to people who would be taking it for a long period of time and is commonly used with counseling. While in most cases it is injected into the vein, usually in the arm, it can also be inhaled or smoked too. While first taking this drug, you will quickly feel it’s effects and they can usually last a few hours, depending on the amount.

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 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.