What is heroin? Heroin use among high school stu- All heroin users—not just those dents is a particular problem. Nearly who inject the drug—risk becoming Heroin is a highly addictive and 2 percent of high school seniors in the addicted. Individuals who abuse heroin rapidly acting opiate (a drug that is United States used the drug at least over time develop a tolerance for the derived from opium). Specifically, once in their lifetime, and nearly half of drug, meaning that they must use heroin is produced from morphine, those injected the drug, according to increasingly larger doses to achieve the which is a principal component of the University of Michigan’s Monitoring same intensity or effect they experi- opium. Opium is a naturally occur- the Future Survey. enced when they first began using the ring substance that is extracted from drug. Heroin ceases to produce feelings the seedpod of the opium poppy. How is heroin abused? of pleasure in users who develop toler- ance; instead, these users must con- What does it look like? Heroin is injected, snorted, or tinue taking the drug simply to feel smoked. Many new, younger users begin normal. Addicted individuals who stop The appearance of heroin can vary by snorting or smoking heroin because using the drug may experience with- dramatically. In the eastern United they wish to avoid the social stigma drawal symptoms, which include States, heroin generally is sold as a attached to injection drug use. These heroin craving, restlessness, muscle powder that is white (or off-white) in users often mistakenly believe that and bone pain, and vomiting. color. (Generally, the purer the heroin snorting or smoking heroin will not lead the whiter the color, because varia- to addiction. Users who snort or smoke Heroin users who inject the drug tions in color result from the presence heroin at times graduate to injection expose themselves to additional risks, of impurities.) In the western United because as their bodies become condi- including contracting human immuno- States, most of the heroin available is tioned to the drug, the effects it pro- deficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B and a solid substance that is black in duces are less intense. They then turn C, and other blood-borne viruses. color. This type of heroin, known as to injection—a more efficient means of Chronic users who inject heroin also black tar, may be sticky (like tar) or administering the drug—to try to attain risk scarred or collapsed veins, infec- hard to the touch. Powdered heroin the more intense effects they experi- tion of the heart lining and valves, that is a dirty brown color also is sold enced when they began using the drug. abscesses, pneumonia, tuberculosis, in the western United States. and liver and kidney disease. What are the risks? Who uses heroin? Street Terms for Heroin Both new and experienced users Big H Hell dust Individuals of all ages use her- risk overdosing on heroin because it is Boy Horse oin—data reported in the National impossible for them to know the purity Capital H Junk Household Survey on Drug Abuse of the heroin they are using. (Heroin China white Mexican horse indicate that an estimated 3,091,000 sold on the street often is mixed with Chiva Mud U.S. residents aged 12 and older have other substances such as sugar, starch, used heroin at least once in their or quinine. An added risk results when Dead on arrival Poppy lifetime. The survey also revealed that heroin is mixed with poisons such as Diesel Smack many teenagers and young adults strychnine.) Heroin overdoses—which Dope Thunder have used heroin at least once— can result whether the drug is snorted, Eighth Train 76,000 individuals aged 12 to 17 and smoked, or injected—can cause slow Good H White junk 474,000 individuals aged 18 to 25. and shallow breathing, convulsions, H coma, and even death. United States. legitimate medicalpurposeinthe potential forabuseandserveno Schedule Idrugshaveahigh Controlled SubstancesAct. Schedule Isubstanceunderthe Is heroinillegal? Check outFastFactson , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Yes, heroinisillegal.Heroina K Jimsonweed Inhalants GHB andanalogs P PCP Methamphetamine MDMA Marijuana LSD Khat Y Prescription drugs Cr Crac aba o etamine ystal methamphetamine wdered cocaine k cocaine :

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