FAQ Erowid runs on the donations and memberships of visitors. Heroin is an opiod agonist. Opium is produced by the opium poppy - papaver somniferum. The group of opiod agonists includes many other drugs, one is morphine, the direct derivative of opium. A called the piperidine ring, which Includes methylated nitrogen and a hydroxyl group.
Most psychoactive drugs act by binding to a receptor in the brain.
Think of a receptor as a lock, and the drug is the key which comes along and releases all these effects which have been cruelly imprisoned. Opiate receptors have a few types locking up slightly different effects each., and which drugs may bind more effectively too. The more effectively a drug can bind to a receptor, the greater the effect it will have. The m receptor prefers morphine, heroin and methadone, while the e receptor prefers the neurochemical b-endorphin. Opiate receptors have been found in every vertebrate species, indicating that endorphins have played an important role in evolutionary development.