Heroin is processed from morphine. Morphine comes from the seed pod of the Asian poppy plant. Heroin is usually a brown or white powder.

The short term effects of heroin abuse can last a few hours. After injecting heroin, users report feeling a surge of euphoria along with a warm flushing of the skin, a dry mouth and heavy feeling in the arms and legs. Following the initial euphoria, the user alternates between wakeful and drowsey states. Mental functioning becomes clouded because of the depression of the central nervous system.

Among the effects of Heroin abuse are fatal overdose, spontaneous abortion by the pregnant user, collapsed weins, and infectious diseases, including, but not limited to, HIV/AIDS, adn hepatitis.

Long term use of Heroin can include collapsed viens, infection of the heart lining and valves, abscesses, cellulitis, and liver disease. Heroin has a depressing effect on respiraton, and various types of pneumonia can result.

Street Heroin can contain additives that do not dissolve and result in clogging the blood vessels that lead to the lungs, liver, kidneys or brain. This can cause infection and death of small patches of cells in vital organs.

Below is a link from the Office Of National Drug Control Policy that you can use to look up street terms of specific drugs. It is indexed alphabetically. It can be very useful to parents to know the slang/street names of Heroin and other drugs, as your child can be referring to a drug by its street name, and you not even be aware that they are refferring to drugs.

 

You can also download a printable version of Street Terms (Adobe Acrobat format).

The list is organized: Alphabetically (click on letters below to jump ahead) # | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

This listing came from the ONDCP website. That web address is http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/

 

The following information on heroin statistics comes from the website "In The Know Zone", that address is http://www.intheknowzone.com/ .

 

 

Statistics Of approximately 2.1 million "sometime" heroin users in the U.S., about 208,000 use it habitually. The number of past-month heroin users nearly tripled from 68,000 in 1993 to 208,000 in 1999. The 1999 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA) estimated that there were 149,000 new heroin users in 1998 and that nearly 80 percent of them were under the age of 26. The 1999 NHSDA found that the mean age of first use of heroin declined from 26 years in 1992 to 21.3 in 1998, which indicates that more young people are using the drug. At the same time, 73.7 percent of tenth graders thought that trying heroin was a "great risk"--the highest percentage recorded in five years. Over 80% of heroin users inject with a partner, yet 80% of overdose victims found by paramedics are found alone. Last year, there were approximately 84,000 visits to emergency rooms in the U.S. due to heroin. Approximately 14% of all drug-related emergency room visits involve heroin. Last year, 4,251 heroin users died as a result of using the drug. 80% of those deaths were caused directly by the drug in combination with alcohol or other drugs. About 10% were caused directly by heroin alone. The remaining 10% were caused by the drug together with suicide, accidents, murders, or medical disorders. In the 25 and 49 age group, illicit drug overdose is the fourth leading cause of death, about the same number as in motor vehicle crashes. The average dependent person uses between 150 - 250 milligrams per day, divided into 3 doses. The average heroin addict spends between $150 and $200 per day to maintain a heroin addiction. In 1998, 65% of the heroin seized in the United States originated in South America and another 17% came from Mexico.