Heroin

Dope

Smack

**Heroin** is an opioid that is commonly used as a recreational substance because to its euphoric effects. Medical grade diamorphine is utilized as a pure hydrochloride salt, as opposed to black tar **heroin**, which is a variable combination of morphine derivatives, mostly 6-MAM, that is the consequence of crude acetylation during the clandestine manufacturing of street **heroin**.

## Uses and Effects

### Recreational

In non-medical contexts, **heroin** is often utilized. It is used recreationally due to the euphoria it produces. Heroin is often times known as "the ideal anything drug." Tolerance develops fast, and higher dosages are required to get the same results. Its appeal among recreational drug users, as compared to morphine, is attributed to its perceived distinct effects.

Short-term addiction tests conducted by the same researchers revealed that tolerance developed at a pace comparable to **heroin** and morphine. Former addicts exhibited a high preference for **heroin** and morphine over the opioids hydromorphone, fentanyl, oxycodone, and pethidine, indicating that **heroin** and morphine are particularly vulnerable to abuse and dependency. When compared to the other opioids, morphine and **heroin** were considerably more likely to cause euphoria and other "good" subjective effects.

### Medical

**Heroin** is not accepted as medically useful by most countries including United States.

In the United Kingdom, **heroin** is prescribed as a powerful pain reliever under the generic name diamorphine and is given orally, subcutaneously, intramuscularly, intrathecally, intranasally, or intravenously. It can be used to treat acute pain, such as that caused by severe physical trauma, myocardial infarction, post-surgical pain, and chronic pain, including end-stage terminal diseases. In other countries it is more common to use morphine or other strong opioids in these situations.

### Effects

In terms of drug danger, **Heroin** is classed as a hard drug. Unadulterated **heroin**, like other opiates, can have negative side effects. The quality of street **heroin** varies significantly, resulting in overdoses when the purity exceeds expectations.

#### Injection

Intravenous use of **heroin** using needles, syringes, or other associated equipment may result in the following:

* Contracting blood-borne infections such as HIV and hepatitis through needle sharing.
* Developing bacterial or fungal endocarditis, as well as venous sclerosis.
* Abscesses.
* Contaminants added to "cut" or dilute **heroin** can cause poisoning.
* Decreased kidney function (nephropathy), but it is unclear whether this is due to adulterants or viral illnesses.

#### Withdrawal

The withdrawal syndrome from **heroin** can begin as soon as two hours after the drug is stopped; however, this time period can vary depending on the degree of tolerance as well as the amount of the last ingested dosage, and generally begins 6–24 hours following cessation. Sweating, malaise, anxiety, depression, akathisia, priapism, extra sensitivity of the genitals in females, general feeling of heaviness, excessive yawning or sneezing, rhinorrhea, insomnia, cold sweats, chills, severe muscle and bone aches, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, cramps, watery eyes, fever, cramp-like pains, and involuntary limb spasms are possible symptoms.

#### Overdose

Naloxone, an opioid antagonist, is typically used to treat **heroin** overdoses. This counteracts the effects of heroin and results in a rapid restoration of awareness, although it may produce withdrawal symptoms. Because naloxone has a shorter half-life than some opioids, it may need to be administered numerous times before the opioid is digested by the body.

## History

The opium poppy was first grown in southern Mesopotamia around 3400 BC. Opium's chemical study in the nineteenth century revealed that the alkaloids codeine and morphine were responsible for the majority of its action.