What exactly is heroin, and why has it become such a big topic? Understanding the facts helps you cut through all the noise and mixed messages.
Heroin is a highly potent opiate made from the seedpods of the poppy plant, which is found most commonly in Burma, Thailand, Afghanistan, Colombia and Mexico. Like all other opiates, it was designed to reduce pain and increase sleep.
- Smoked
- Snorted as a powder
- Injected
Common Names4
- China White
- Smack
- Horse
- Brown Sugar
- Tar
- Dope
- Skag
- Skunk
It was first manufactured by an English chemist in 1874. However, it was not sold commercially until 1898 when the Bayer Pharmaceutical Company (yes, the same company that sells aspirin and Coppertone sunscreen) picked up the production. Bayer then exported it to over 23 countries as a treatment for tuberculosis (to ease pain and soothe painful breathing) and as a remedy for morphine addiction (even though heroin comes from the same poppy plant as morphine).3 After addiction and overdose rates grew, the Heroin Act of 1924 was passed in the U.S. making heroin completely illegal, including for medical purposes.
- The term “junkies” was first applied to heroin users in the 1920s. As heroin’s legal status began changing, addicts in New York City began collecting and selling scrap metal to support themselves and their habit. They spent their days scavenging junk and thus were called junkies.
- Almost ¼ of heroin users become addicted.9
Heroin is known for its euphoric effects - extreme feelings of happiness. People who use heroin describe a “rush” of blissful feelings. Heroin achieves this high by binding to opioid receptors in the brain, which then immediately release an unnatural amount of dopamine, causing feelings of pain relief and euphoria, or a dream-like state. Often users go in and out of consciousness because breathing is slowed down so much. This is also what makes overdosing so common and possible for even first timers.
However, the number of deaths per year from a heroin overdose have more than tripled in CO over the past 15 years.2
- Pinpoint pupils
- Flushed, or red skin
- Nausea, vomiting
- Constipation
- Dry mouth
- Itching
- Seizures
- Tolerance5 and dependence,6 which come with withdrawal symptoms, such as flu-like symptoms, diarrhea and irritability, just shortly after the high wears off
- Depression and just feeling lousy, which often causes the cravings for more
- Sexual dysfunction - inability to get an erection or orgasm and disruption of menstrual cycle and production of sperm
- Destruction of white matter7 in the brain where behavior, decisions, and learning happen
- Reduced immune system function, making it hard for the body to fight infections
- Damage to blood vessels, kidneys, intestines and lungs
- Sleep apnea, or what sounds like heavy snoring and may actually slow down breathing to a deadly rate
- Hemorrhoids or anal bleeding
- Death - For real, 160 Coloradans died from a heroin overdose in 2015 alone, which is a 332% increase from 2000 when only 37 Coloradans died from a heroin overdose.
- Nearly half of young people who inject heroin reported abusing prescription opioids before starting to use heroin.10
- Heroin use increases the risk of getting HIV/AIDS, and Hepatitis B and C. Remember, not only injection drug users are susceptible, also those who have sex with injection drug users.11
Click here to see how heroin impacts the brain.
Heroin is ILLEGAL by federal law
In Colorado, getting caught using or possessing heroin for the first time can result in a $50 - $100,000 fine and/or up to a year in prison.12
2 www.coloradohealthinstitute.org
3 http://www.drugfreeworld.org/drugfacts/heroin.html
4 http://www.news-medical.net/health/What-is-Morphine.aspx
5 https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/teaching-packets/neurobiology-drug-addiction/section-iii-action-heroin-morphine/6-definition-tolerance
6 https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/teaching-packets/neurobiology-drug-addiction/section-iii-action-heroin-morphine/8-definition-dependence
7 http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/white+matter
9 http://abovetheinfluence.com/drugs/heroin/
10 https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/research-reports/heroin/how-heroin-linked-to-prescription-drug-abuse
11 https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/heroin
12 http://codes.findlaw.com/co/title-18-criminal-code/co-rev-st-sect-18-18-403-5.html
