1.The correct chemical name for heroin is, Diacetylmorphine or Diamorphine. Heroin falls into the depressants category. Depressants slow down the messages between the brain and the body by slowing down the central nervous system. According to National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), heroin is a schedule I substance. Since it is a schedule I substance, it means that it is more likely to be abused.
2. Heroin has a lot of slang terms. Some nicknames are, H, white, white wady, scag, brown crystal, nod, chiba, tar, snowball, black pearl and more. The most common nicknames are, big H, black tar, chiva, dope, hell dust, horse, negra, smack, thunder, brown sugar, china white, and dragon (smoking heroin is called “Chasing the Dragon”).
At times when someone is doing heroin, the combine it with other drugs. When they combine heroin and cocaine the call it, speedball, belushi and more. When they combine heroin and marijuana they call it, candale, woolie or woola. When people combine heroin and LDS they call it, beast. There are other combinations like, heroin and methamphetamine, heroin and cold medicine, heroin, cocaine and tobacco, and heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine, alcohol, and rohypnol.
3. The first opioid was Opium, it was taken out of the sap of opium poppies. Opium was used for helping with pain, but towards the end of the 18th century doctors started to realize the addictive qualities of opium. In 1805, morphine was out of the way from opium and was used to cure the addiction of opium. They didn’t know that morphine was more addictive than opium and over the years, morphine has been abused a lot more. Heroin was formed from morphine by an English chemist in 1874. Heroin was not for sale until 1898 by the Bayer Pharmaceutical Company.
They wanted to people to use heroin instead or morphine because they found out that people were abusing morphine. It turned out that heroin was also very addictive and was eventually classified as a illegal drug in the United States. There have been at least two major trends of heroin in the United States.The first trend started after World War II and the second one began in the late 1960s. During the first trend, the highest rate of use happened between the years 1971 and 1977.During the second trend, the use of heroin was common by the men that were serving in the Vietnam War.
Both of the trends started to die down because the heroin wasn’t as pure. Today in the United States, heroin is most likely sod in white or brownish powder or as a black sticky material known as “black tar”. In Arizona, “black tar” from Mexico is the most common form of heroin. Heroin that is sold in the streets is usually mixed with other drugs or substances. Heroin sold on the streets could be mixed with cocaine, sugar, starch, baking soda, powdered milk, or caffeine.Even though heroin sold on the streets are mixed with other drugs or things, pure heroin is becoming more available.
4. There are multiple methods that a person can take heroin. The method of use depends on how the user prefers it and how pure the heroin is. Heroin can be placed in tinfoil and inhaled as smoke, crushed up and snorted as powder through the nose. The most common method is being injected into a vein or injected into a muscle. For heroin that is more pure, the most common method is being snorted or smoked. The most common reason for people to change their method is because they want the heroin to get into their system faster. For Example, if a person is usually snorting the powdered heroin on a regular bases, they don’t get that high that they want as fast or at all. So, they could switch to injecting the heroin and that will get into their system faster and will probably give a bigger effect.
5. One of the most important effects of heroin is addition. Heroin immediately affects the body, like vomiting, itching, a dry mouth, and their body temperature increases.Heroin enters the brain quickly causing a rush. When the rush wears off, the body starts to feel heavy, the person has an irregular heart rate or slowed heart rate, clouded mental functioning and confusion. Heroin weakens the immune system, weakens the muscles and weakens the lungs causing respiratory illnesses. The long term effects of heroin are, being really sad, constipation, addiction and dependence on heroin. When females use heroin, they have an irregular menstrual cycle, and have trouble having children.
When males use heroin, they have no sex drive. When someone overdoses on heroin, there is not enough blood getting to the brain, their breathing could slow down and stops, or there is heart failure. With chronic use of heroin, people develop collapsed veins if they are injecting it. Because people are injecting the heroin into their veins, the heroin can travel to the heart, causing infection in the lining of the heart and valves. Chronic use of heroin can also cause constipation, the heroin slows down bowel movements. Chronic use of heroin can also cause liver or kidney disease. With long term use of heroin, there is damage to the brain.
Long term use of heroin takes a toll on the areas of the brain that are connected with long-term memory, decision making, and controlling their behavior, which are the prefrontal cortex and medial temporal lobe in the brain. Chronic use of heroin damages the person’s memory, and their emotional processing. The damage to the brain cuts back the person’s ability to make decisions. It also reduces the ability to imagine events in the future. If people are reusing needles bacteria could grow and they would be injecting bacteria into their veins. If people are sharing needles they could get HIV.
6.Heroin is at the top of the list of most addictive drugs because people who use heroin get develop a tolerance for it very quickly. Just by taking one hit of heroin, a person can become addicted. One in every four people get addicted to heroin. The DEA estimates that about 1.2 percent of the United States population have admitted to use heroin at least once in their lifetime.
Heroin is both a psychological and physical addiction, it depends on a person’s withdrawal. Having a psychological addiction to heroin means that the person has intense cravings of heroin, they have feelings of high anxiety if they try to end the addiction or if they don’t have heroin, and some get depressed without the drug. Having a physical addiction to heroin means that the person has nausea or vomiting, their body and muscles hurt, headaches, sweating and changes in heart rate.
7. Heroin withdrawal is when the person doesn’t have any heroin. When heroin is withdrawn, there could be mild symptoms, moderate symptoms and serious symptoms. Some mild symptoms of heroin withdrawal are, bones and muscles hurting,nausea, chills, sweating, and cramps. Mild symptoms of withdrawal from heroin are not as bad as the others, moderate symptoms are worse. Some moderate symptoms of heroin are, diarrhea, they can’t concentrate, and tremors.
Serious symptoms of heroin withdrawal are, high anxiety, insomnia, craving heroin, some even get depressed because they don’t have the drug and it is hard for them to feel pleasure without being high off heroin. Withdrawal symptoms can last for days, weeks, months and even years. The longer someone uses heroin and how much is being used and how much at a time is being used will be how much they’re dependent on it. When it is taken away from them, and they have used a lot for a long time then their withdrawal will be different than someone who has just started.
8.Using heroin while being pregnant can cause neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS). Neonatal abstinence syndrome is a group of problem that happen to a newborn when the mother was using addictive drugs. Neonatal abstinence syndrome happens when the heroin, that the mother is using, passes through the placenta and gets to the baby. Since the heroin is getting to the baby, the baby becomes dependant to heroin like the mother.
NSA has to be hospitalization and medication, most of the time they use morphine If a woman uses heroin while she is pregnant it could cause serious problems for the baby. . The baby could be born too early, have birth defects or could die in the womb. If the baby is born, the baby would have some birth defects. Some defects would be, seizures, they would gain weight slowly, lots of crying, fever, tremors, diarrhea, vomiting and sometimes death.
9.Heroin is a schedule I drug. If you get caught holding or possessing heroin or any other schedule I or III drug, they will charge you for 3rd degree felony charges. With a 3rd degree felony charge in Utah, the person would get from zero to five years in prison. A 3rd degree felony fine is up to $5,000. When the person is distributing heroin or intends to distribute it is different, If someone is selling heroin or has heroin and is going to sell and gets caught, they will be charged with distribution or possession with the intent to distribute.
Distribution and possession with intent to distribute are practically the same thing. Both of the charges start at a 2nd degree felony level. Most likely the charges will also have fines which could be up to 15 years in prison More people are arrested because of things related to drugs than any other crime. In 1969, a study showed that crime was linked to heroin addiction. They found out that 44% of the people going to jail had used heroin. In 1971, some soldiers in Vietnam showed signs of heroin addiction.
10.Heroin can cause a lot of health and legal problems, but heroin can also cause problems in relationships. Heroin can affects personal relationships, friendships, communities and heroin can hurt you financially. Heroin can cause lots of problems to your personal relationships, heroin abuse can ruin marriages, end friendships, and family relationships. If someone has custody of their child and they use heroin, that person could lose child custody. Heroin can also cause financial problems that don’t only affect that person, but it could affect their loved ones.
Families, friendships, and marriages can start to break when someone starts using heroin. Heroin can cause mood changes and dangerous behaviors. Since heroin can cause mood changes and dangerous behaviors, that person can hurt their loved ones emotionally or physically. Injecting heroin and sharing needles is a really bad idea, people who share needles could get HIV, hepatitis B or C. If a person is sharing needles and gets one of these diseases, they could pass it on to their partner and that could cause some problems.
If someone who is doing heroin has children, that person’s drug habits could be reported to the police by other family members or friends and that person could lose child custody. Heroin can also cause financial problems. People who depend on heroin will buy it regularly. People who do heroin will do whatever it takes to get, even if it means using the money that was being saved for rent, or food. If a person has a family that they have to take care of, they could use the money for heroin instead of what the family needs.
In some cases, when a person doesn’t have the money to buy the heroin on their own, they steal from loved ones, and that could cause problems. When someone uses heroin, their community could become shocked or scared. Families don’t want their friends and family to be exposed to drugs.People don’t want their children to see someone doing drugs, because then the children will think that it is okay. Heroin is very addictive and people will do anything to get it, even steal. Some people who are so hooked on heroin could try to steal from their neighbors.
