Heroin Addiction

Heroin, a powerful narcotic, acts upon the brain as a painkiller, increasing physical addiction and ongoing emotional dependence (Schaffer Library of…). Heroin has many challenging and highly risky effects on the user, all the more hazardous if overdosing is present. This extremely dangerous drug, heroin, will never cease being used, but may cease the existence of an individual.

After Heroin is injected or inhaled, it crosses the blood brain barrier, and once in the brain, it is converted to morphine and will bind with opioid receptors. This transferring is what gives the user their rush, and the more of the drug, the faster it binds and the stronger the rush. Heroin

Heroin provides a rush feeling in the brain which is can be accompanied by the following symptoms; a warm flushing of the skin, a dry mouth, and a heavy feeling in the extremities. The following side effects often present themselves nausea, vomiting and severe itching. After the initial effects of heroin have faded, abusers will be drowsy for several hours. With heroin the individual's mental function is often clouded because of the drugs effect on the central nervous system. Long term abuse of the drug can result in respiratory and cardiac functions slowing this are often the cause of death in heroin

“Heroin has analgesic and euphoric properties” (Abadinsky, 2014, p. 45). When the drug is taken and enters the body, heroin relieves pain, works as a sedative, decreases one’s anxiety, relaxes muscles, slows motor activity, drowsiness, and a feel of well being (Abadinsky, 2014). When taken, heroin will typically start to work within ten seconds, depending the method used to ingest the drug (Abadinsky, 2014). Most users will take a needle full of heroin after he or she cooked the powder into a liquid, and injected through the skin into a vein (Abadinsky, 2014). Heroin can also be smoked by inhaling the fumes like when marijuana is smoked (Abadinsky, 2014). There are four different stages that can occur when a person uses heroin, including the rush, the high, the nod, and being straight (Abadinsky, 2014). The rush is when the user experiences multiple types of euphoric feelings, instinctive sensations, a flushed face, and deeper vocals (Abadinsky, 2014). “Heroin activates brain systems that are responsible for reinforcing peoperties of such natural rewards as food and sex” (Abadinsky, 2014, p. 45). The high is a feeling of well-being that can last for hours, but the high can be less effective depending on the user’s tolerance to the drug (Abadinsky, 2014). Therefore, if a user has a high tolerance to the high, he or she must increase dose size in order to experience the effects of the high (Abadinsky,

Heroin has been a quiet crisis on the rise over the last few decades, wreaking havoc on communities and families. Hesitance to talk about the heroin crisis makes it difficult to fight the growing trend of abuse. According to the National Household Survey on Drug Use and Health, the increase of heroin abuse has risen 80 percent since 2002 (Jones). The medical effects of addicts abusing their bodies and neglecting their health are a variety of medical conditions. A short term abuser may experience depressed respiration, distorted mental functioning, nausea and vomiting (Volkow). The long term effects of heroin abuse can be addiction, infectious disease as in HIV, hepatitis B and C, collapsed veins, bacterial infections, abscesses and infection of the heart

Heroin is a white or brown powder. Sometimes it’s a black paste that's known as black tar heroin. Heroin is wicked by many other drugs, sugar, flour and milk. It may have a vinegar smell to it. People who do heroin usually snort or smoke it. There is also an option to inject the drug into your body. It costs $70 to $300 a gram. “In the brain, heroin is converted into morphine, which binds to opioid receptors. This causes a pleasurable "rush," and a user's skin becomes warm and flushed. The user's arms and legs may feel heavy. Some users experience severe itching and vomiting. After the rush, a user's heart rate and breathing slow down, sometimes to the point of death. Heroin is considered highly addictive. Euphoria occurs within seconds of an intravenous injection, five

Heroin Addiction in Australia. There are many fact of this devastated addiction which lead a person to die or rather hope to. Heroin is an opiate drug which belongs to morphine, and morphine itself obtained from the opium poppy plant and this plant called papaver somniferum which means a hypnotic plant, also this plant grows in many countries such as Afghanistan, India, Australia, and China, additionally in 1803 heroin first discovered, and the reason why it has discovered is to help patients to kill the pain, so its name was a painkiller. (Live Science 2015) In addition, according to National Institute in Drug Abuse (2014) heroin is a highly chronic addictive drug that contains morphine which is from a plant called opium poppy that belongs

Chronic use of the drug can cause collapsed veins from injection, heart infections, abscesses, constipation, gastrointestinal cramping, and liver disease. Street heroin is known to contain additives that can clog the blood vessels that may lead to the lungs or brain. This can lead to infection in the cells of vital organs. If used heavily and then stopped, withdrawal symptoms will occur, causing the user to become restless, have drug cravings, muscle and bone pain, diarrhea and vomiting, cold flashes, insomnia, and kicking movements. Withdrawal symptoms typically occur between 24 to 48 hours after the user's last dosage and usually subside after a week (Types of Prescription

“Heroin use results in a massive amplification of dopamine activity (Sherman, 2007)”, which produces intense pleasure. It mimic's the brain’s naturally occurring opioid endorphin neurotransmitter. The chances that heroin use will lead to addiction is associated the speed in which heroin promotes dopamine, the intensity of dopamine effects and the reliability that dopamine effects will occur. It has high activity on opioid receptors, which means that there is a very high intensity of pleasure. It also has near perfect reliability for producing pleasure (Sherman, 2007).

Heroin addicts have the psychological dependence on heroin that leads them into the state of self-destruction and the possibility of leading to death by the extreme use of heroin. Never estimate the poppy flower for its power that withholds the fiends to their mentality enduring the euphoria enslavement of the mind that contained for many centuries. The heroin addiction nation is a self numbing injection and dry approach to have the mind under the state of the greatest feeling of great happiness leaving the pain behind under the spell of heroin. Heroin comes in many forms for addicts to enjoy in their own way. They come in powder and rock like form that is combined with other narcotics. The snorting form for heroin is not

The National Institute on Drug Abuse educates society by saying, “People who inject drugs such as heroin are at high risk of contracting the HIV and hepatitis C (HCV) virus.” Users can receive these diseases if they use the same needles with other people. Reused needles could have blood or other fluids still on them from the previous user, which can carry out onto the next person and cause them to get infected with a disease. Another cause of heroin addiction is the tolerance of one’s body. It does not take much for an individual’s body to adjust to heroin. NIDA states that, “Heroin also produces profound degrees of tolerance and physical dependence.” Eventually when the user intakes heroin, their body slowly adapts and learns to tolerate the substance. Soon enough, the normal dose does not satisfy the user, so to receive the rush and euphoric effect, individuals would have start increasing the doses they take. Increasing the doses that they take can begin to lead them to using too much and the individual may unintentionally overdose.

Psychological effects are very pronounced. To a heroin addict there is only two groups of people, the user and everyone else. The addict will often surround himself with other users. This ensures a continued supply of the drug as well as someone who will keep their dirty secret. This is also dangerous on two other related front. Since HIV and hepatitis can be transmitted with a shared needle they append other health related issues. The effect continues when the addiction causes a person to withdraw from their family, careers are ruined, debt increases and illegal activities is perpetrated. For most addicts there is only three consequences. They are incarceration, mental hospital or death.

The long term effects of using heroin can become serious and can cause permanent damage. Some things that can also happen is that it is possible for the user to obtain a liver or a kidney disease. It is also a high possibility for the veins in the users body to collapse. Other things that can happen is the tissue of the body can get swollen and the tissue will become filled with pus. Using heroin long term can also lead to muscle and bone pain. It can also cause the persons immune system to become weakened, and it also leads to uncontrollable drug use. In worse case scenario, it can lead to death. The death can be caused by an overdose, a liver or kidney disease, or even if the heroin user catches HIV.

Repeated heroin use changes the physical structure and physiology of the brain, which makes imbalances in neuronal and hormonal systems. Heroin use may cause deterioration of the brain’s white matter; this affects the ability to make decisions, behave normally, and act during stressful situations. Heroine also creates tolerance, which makes the user’s body dependant on it.

One question that arises from this discussion is, if heroin produces these effects on the central nervous system, then why are some people more likely to become addicted than others? Wouldn't everyone eventually become addicted to the drug? One possible answer to this question is that while everyone has the potential to develop a heroin dependency, some people may be more likely to do so, or may have a more severe problem with the addiction. For example, some people may have greater difficulty synthesizing endorphins and therefore would have more trouble forcing their bodies to make it on its own. In addition, some people are more likely to fall into depression which influences drug use. If a person has high cortisol levels to begin with (which influence depression), he or she may become more severely depressed and therefore have a more difficult withdrawal period (4).