Commonly Asked Questions about the Effects of Heroin
What is it?
Heroin is a highly addictive drug derived from morphine, which is obtained
from the opium poppy. It is a "downer" that affects the brain's pleasure systems
and interferes with the brain's ability to perceive pain.
What are its
short-term effects? The short-term effects of heroin abuse appear soon after
a single dose and disappear in a few hours. After an injection of heroin, users
report feeling a surge of euphoria (?rush?) accompanied by a warm flushing of
the skin, a dry mouth, and heavy extremities. Following this initial euphoria,
the user goes ?on the nod,? an alternately wakeful and drowsy state. Mental
functioning becomes clouded due to the depression of the central nervous system.
Other effects included slowed and slurred speech, slow gait, constricted pupils,
droopy eyelids, impaired night vision, vomiting, and constipation.
What
are its long-term effects? Long-term effects of heroin appear after repeated
use for some period of time. Chronic users may develop collapsed veins,
infection of the heart lining and valves, abscesses, cellulites, and liver
disease. Pulmonary complications, including various types of pneumonia, may
result from the poor health condition of the abuser, as well as from heron?s
depressing effects on respiration. In addition to the effects of the drug
itself, street heroin may have additives that do not really dissolve and result
in clogging the blood vessels that lead to the lungs, liver, kidneys, or brain.
This can cause infection or even death of small patches of cells in vital
organs.
With regular heroin use, tolerance develops. This means the abuser
must use more heroin to achieve the same intensity or effect. As higher doses
are used over time, physical dependence and addiction develop. With physical
dependence, the body has adapted to the presence of the drug and withdrawal
symptoms may occur if use is reduced or stopped.
Withdrawal, which in
regular abusers may occur as early as a few hours after the last administration,
produces drug craving, restlessness, muscle and bone pain, insomnia, diarrhea
and vomiting, cold flashes with goose bumps (?cold turkey?), kicking movements
(?kicking the habit?), and other symptoms. Major withdrawal symptoms peak
between 48 and 72 hours after the last and subside after about a week. Sudden
withdrawal by heavily dependent users who are in poor health is occasionally
fatal, although heroin withdrawal is considered much less dangerous than alcohol
or barbiturate withdrawal.
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