Most illegally distributed heroin comes from opium produced in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Mexico. At the start of the 21st century, the leading opium-producing countries included Afghanistan, Myanmar (Burma), and Laos. Heroin addiction first appeared in the early 20th century, and for several decades thereafter it was customarily confined to the marginal or criminal elements in Western societies.
Overdose
- Prenatal care may lessen the chances your baby will have serious health problems from your heroin use.
- And if you get sick, you may pass the infection (hepatitis B and C, HIV) to your sexual partners or kids.
- The rectum or the vaginal canal is where the majority of the drug would likely be taken up, through the membranes lining their walls.
- This method is sometimes preferred by users who do not want to prepare and administer heroin for injection or smoking but still want to experience a fast onset.
- This method of administration redirects first-pass metabolism, with a quicker onset and higher bioavailability than oral administration, though the duration of action is shortened.
The μ-opioid receptor also binds endogenous opioid peptides such as β-endorphin, leu-enkephalin, and met-enkephalin. Depending on usage it has an onset 4–24 hours after the last dose of heroin. One of the most significant effects of heroin use is addiction. Increased tolerance causes users to use more heroin to achieve the same effect. As higher doses of the drug are used, physical dependence develops.
Overdose Prevention
The rectum or the vaginal canal is where the majority of the drug would likely be taken up, through the membranes lining their walls. Intravenous users can use a variable single dose range using a hypodermic needle. The dose of heroin used for recreational purposes is dependent on the frequency and level of use. Chronic injectors may develop collapsed veins, infection of the heart lining and valves, abscesses, and liver or kidney disease. Heroin poses special problems because of the transmission of HIV and other diseases that can occur from sharing needles or other injection equipment.
What Does It Mean To Have a Substance Abuse Problem?
A large or strong dose can slow your heart rate and breathing so much that you can’t do it on your own. Cognitive behavioral therapy helps you pay attention to the things you think and do when it comes to drug use. It gives you ways to better cope with stress and other triggers.
Health Care Providers
Smoking is the fastest route of drug administration, although intravenous injection results in a quicker rise in blood concentration.49 These are followed by suppository (anal or vaginal insertion), insufflation (snorting), and ingestion (swallowing). Heroin addicts—and opioid addicts more generally—commit a disproportionately large share of crimes in countries where drug use is problematic. Though anyone can develop a substance use disorder, genes and environment play a big role in who’ll get one.
If you snort heroin a lot, you may damage the lining of your nose or airways. You may destroy the tissue that separates your nasal passages (called the septum). Many people start using heroin to deal with anxiety, worries, and other stressors.
Production
Diamorphine continues to be widely used in palliative care in the UK, where it is commonly given by the subcutaneous route, often via a syringe driver if patients cannot easily swallow morphine solution. The advantage of diamorphine over morphine is that diamorphine is more fat soluble and therefore more potent by injection, so smaller doses of it are needed for the same effect on pain. Both of these factors are advantageous if giving high doses of opioids via the subcutaneous route, which is often necessary for palliative care. But if you’re going to take heroin, there are steps you can take to lessen the chances of serious health consequences, including overdose or death. You can expose your baby to heroin if you use drugs while you’re pregnant. This raises the odds that your unborn child will become dependent on heroin and have withdrawal symptoms when they’re born.
Medical uses
If you become addicted to heroin, you may keep taking the drug even though it doesn’t make you feel good anymore. In the U.S., use of pure heroin is highest on the West Coast and areas east of the Mississippi River. This includes cities such as San Diego and Seattle along with Boston, Baltimore, Washington, DC, Chicago, Minneapolis, and St. Louis. Overdose prevention is a CDC priority that impacts families and communities.
Users describe a feeling of warmth, happiness and contentment from a few minutes to several hours after use. Heroin is also used by those who are physically dependent to prevent withdrawal. The liver starts to break down (or metabolize) heroin within minutes. If someone took your blood, they could only detect the pure form of the drug for about 5 minutes. But heroin metabolites may stick around in your urine or hair for 2-4 days or longer.
Risks of Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) and Overdose
More than 1 million people have died since 1999 from a drug overdose. The U.S. opioid overdose death rate rose by 14% from 2020 to 2021. Some of these deaths happen because heroin is laced with other drugs, such as the powerful painkiller fentanyl. Fentanyl has become one of the leading contributors to overdose deaths in the U.S. Drugmakers often mix heroin with other substances to make their product bulkier, cheaper, and stronger. This may include fentanyl, a powerful painkiller that’s often made and sold illegally.
You can easily overdose and die on fentanyl, especially if you don’t know that it’s in the heroin you’re taking. Large doses of heroin can cause fatal respiratory depression, and the drug has been used for suicide or as a murder weapon. The serial killer Harold Shipman used diamorphine on his victims, and the subsequent Shipman Inquiry led to a tightening of the regulations surrounding the storage, prescribing and destruction of controlled drugs in the UK. When dissolved in water, it can be injected subcutaneously (skin-popping) or intravenously (mainlining). But heroin addicts, as opposed to novice users of the drug, almost invariably inject it intravenously, because this produces the most rapid and intense euphoric effects.
- People who are addicted almost always deny that they’re using.
- The drug itself may come in aluminum foil packages (called foils) or in tiny balloons.
- This is a metabolite, or a byproduct of the drug breakdown process, that only shows up after you take heroin.
- Increased tolerance causes users to use more heroin to achieve the same effect.
When you inject heroin straight into your vein, you may feel a rush within seconds that lasts a few minutes or less. Heroin that’s injected under the skin or into a muscle may take longer to kick in, and the strongest effects may linger for up to an hour. Opioid Use Disorder (OUD), often known as addiction, is a problematic pattern of opioid use that causes significant impairment or distress.
A medication called naloxone can block the effects of opioids and reverse a heroin overdose if it’s used quickly. But it also comes in measured doses as an auto-pen (Evzio) and a nasal spray (Narcan). In some states, you don’t need a doctor’s prescription to get Narcan. Naloxone is a safe medication that can quickly reverse an overdose from opioids like heroin if it is given in time. It works by blocking the effects of the opioid on the body.
A person on heroin may not look like they’re “on drugs.” They may just seem sleepy. People who are addicted almost always deny that they’re using. Some drug screenings are more sensitive than others and heroin effects and withdrawal may check for the presence of 6-MAM. This is a metabolite, or a byproduct of the drug breakdown process, that only shows up after you take heroin.