Street Drugs

2 Pages 529 Words

Heroin
Heroin was first created from morphine in 1874, yet was not widely used in medicine until the beginning of this century. Commercial production of the new pain medicine was first started in 1898. Doctors remained unaware of its potential for addiction for years. The first attempt to control the use of heroin in the United States was established with the Harrison Narcotic Act of 1914. Heroin is now a highly addictive drug, and its use is a serious problem in America. Heroin is processed from morphine, a naturally occurring substance extracted from Asian poppy plant. Heroin usually appears as a white or brown powder. Street names for heroin include smack, H, skag, and junk. Other names may refer to types of heroin produced in a specific geographical area, such as mexician black tar.

Heroin abuse is associated with serious health conditions, including fatal overdose, collapsed veins, infectious diseases, including HIV/AIDS and hepatitis.

The short-term effects of heroin abuse appear soon after a single dose and disappear in a few hours. After an injection of heroin, the user reports feeling a surge of euphoria accompanied by warm flushing of the skin, a dry mouth, and heavy extremities. Following that comes an alternately wakeful and drowsy state. Long-term effects of heroin appear after repeated use for some period of time. Chronic users may develop collapsed veins, infection of the heart lining and valves, abscesses, cellulites, and liver disease.

In addition to the effects of the drug itself, street heroin may have additives that do not readily digest and result in clogging the blood vessels that lead to the lungs, liver, kidneys, or brain. This can cause infection or even death of small patches of cells in vital organs.

According to the Drug Abuse Warning Network, heroin is the second most frequently mentioned drug in overall drug-related deaths. From 1990 through 1995, the number of heroin-related episodes doubled. ...