DO YOU
KNOW WHAT THE MOST USED DRUG IS FOR THE MIDDLE CLASS?
You are
probably thinking marijuana, but, no it is actually Heroin.
Today’s typical heroin
user is a middle-class suburbanite who started off with prescription
painkillers. Heroin is just as easy to obtain as marijuana but has far more
long term consequences of its addiction.
If you know of a heroin
addict, they probably started down the road to addiction from the abuse of
prescription narcotics such as oxycodone (OxyContin), hydrocodone (Vicodin),
and fentanyl (Duragesic). Not realizing
they are addicted, when they cannot afford or cannot get their prescribed
medicine anymore, they switch to heroin.
Heroin is made from
morphine which is obtained from the opium plant like most other narcotics. When heroin enters the brain, it converts
into back into morphine without the other effects of morphine. This produces a surge of euphoria, or
rush, and a warm flushing skin. One, of
several, side effects of heroin use is severe itchiness. Heroin can make people think that their skin
is crawling and itches which is why you see a lot of heroin users picking at
their skin. Other symptoms can be a
person’s muscles become heavy and slow moving.
Heroin users will
alternate between drowsiness and wakefulness for several hours. This is
referred to as being “on the nod”. “On
the nod” is not a medical term, you can compare it to a college student in
a boring lecture who has his head down but is trying to stay awake-his head
will nod and drop lower as he gets sleepier, and then his head will eventually
jerk awake. Being “On the Nod” is the first step on a slippery slope toward
overdosing.
Heroin goes by many
names:
On the street, heroin may
be referred to as “H”, “horse” “smack” “thunder” “junk”. In some cases, the street word used may
refer to the drug’s looks or chemicals, such as brown sugar, black tar or hell
dust. Black-tar heroin comes from Mexico, which is the only country that
produces it. It looks like a black
Tootsie Roll; when the drug is cold, but, when it is warm, it’s sticky, like
roofing tar.
Heroin can be taken one of
3 ways:
·
Intravenously
which provides the user with the fastest rush and greatest intensity of the
drug.
·
Smoking: typically,
with the use of a pipe but the effects take longer to reach the brain up to 15
minutes.
·
Snorting: typically,
with the use of a straw and the effects also take longer to reach the brain up
to 30 minutes.
Heroin acquired on the
street can be very dangerous for most users.
That is because some dealers have been known to cut (mixed) with
strychnine, rat poison, or other types of poison putting the user's life in
danger. Some dealers mix it with sugar,
starch, or powdered milk to make it seem the drug seem weaker and causing the
user to buy a lot more of it.