Heroin

There are many reasons why someone may begin using heroin. They may do it to be “in on something.” A person gets high to “be like my friends.” (For many, this can be an important reason for taking drugs.) Also, they do it to numb the physical or mental sufferings of life. In addition, to emulate role models. Celebrities admit to using heroin. Popular magazines try to make drug use seem “fashionable.” Drugs offer a “solution” to the feeling of many adolescents that they have “no future.” Young people are duped into believing lies about heroin, such as that it increases creativity, rids a person of problems and gives meaning to life. Experimenting with heroin offers the thrill and excitement of taking a risk.

Heroin is particularly addictive because it enters the brain so rapidly. With heroin, the rush is usually accompanied by a warm flushing of the skin, dry mouth, and a heavy feeling in the extremities, which may be accompanied by nausea, vomiting, and severe itching. After the initial effects, abusers usually will be drowsy for several hours. Mental function is clouded by heroin’s effect on the central nervous system. Cardiac functions slow. Breathing is also severely slowed, sometimes to the point of death. Heroin overdose is a particular risk on the street, where the amount and purity of the drug cannot be accurately known.

One of the most detrimental long-term effects of heroin is addiction itself. Heroin also produces profound degrees of tolerance and physical dependence, which are also powerful motivating factors for compulsive use and abuse. As with abusers of any addictive drug, heroin abusers gradually spend more and more time and energy obtaining and using the drug. Once they are addicted, the heroin abusers primary purpose in life becomes seeking and using drugs. The drugs literally change their brains.

Physical dependence develops with higher doses of the drug. With physical dependence, the body adapts to the presence of the drug and withdrawal...