Heroin tends to relax the user. An immediate rush usually will occur and sometimes be accompanied by side effects such as restlessness, nausea and vomiting. This is best described as going back and forth from feeling alert to drowsy. Due to the use of needles with this drug, infections and abscesses on the body are common. Heroin users will normally have injuries that have been left unattended due to the drug's pain killing abilities.
Addiction usually leads to malnutrition and weight loss.
A person addicted to heroin may look like they are in a daze, almost to the point of sleep, have a dry mouth, low raspy voice, droopy eyelids, profuse itching and fresh puncture marks or sores covering their body. Dependence is likely with heroin, especially if the person uses a lot of the substance or just uses it occasionally over a long period of time. As with any drug, once addicted, the addict will go to extreme means to obtain the drug. Burglary, shoplifting, and robbery are a few that are most often connected to a heroin addict. Whenever a person is under the influence of a substance they do not function reasonably.