The high from heroin is experienced as intense pleasure. Once a person begins using heroin, they quickly develop a tolerance to the drug and need more and more to get the same effects. Heroin usually appears as a white or brown powder. Heroin is purer now than it has ever been. Increased purity results in users snorting and smoking rather than injecting the drug.
Sellers cut and package heroin for injectors and for inhalers differently.
Purity is lower in the South and the West than in the Northeast and Midwest. Injected into a muscle. Smoked in a water pipe or standard pipe, mixed in a marijuana joint or regular cigarette. Recent studies suggest a shift from injecting heroin to snorting or smoking because of increased purity and the misconception that these forms of use will not lead to addiction. Current estimates suggest that nearly 600,000 people need treatment for heroin addiction.