Previous: Withdrawal
The Effects of Heroin
Back to the document's frontpageHeroin devastates. Although pure heroin (as initially developed by Bayer as a thought non addictive alternative to morphine) in itself is not damaging to any of the major organs, heroin as it is taken illicitly is very destructive both physically and socially.
Physical and social degradation
Heroin is never sold in its pure form, and the percentage of heroin in a dosage as sold at the street level can vary greatly. The heroin is cut with another substance, and this substance may be relatively benign, such as talc, or a more harmful substance, such as brick dust or even strychnine. The addition of a diluting substance can be very harmful when consumed with regularity.
Heroin addicts may suffer from collapsed veins, or blocked veins from impurities in injected heroin. Abscesses from injection are common, and bacterial infection from impurities and unclean injection methods can lead to bacterial damage of the heart, and eventual heart attack or stroke.
Injection is obviously the most destructive form of administration, but snorting or smoking heroin can lead to nasal damage and respiratory infections such as tuberculosis, from the decreased respiratory rate induced by the drug.
Heroin users also suffer the ravages of physical neglect as caused by the drug. Weight loss is very commonly associated with heroin addiction, and users suffer lowered immunity to infections due to their bodily neglect. Although heroin is not toxic in itself, the effects of heroin usage are extremely physically damaging.
With injection administration, also comes the greatly increased probability of HIV and Hepatitis C infection; and as such heroin users are considered to be a very high risk group to contract HIV AIDS.
Usage of heroin can kill, and if the physical degradation of abuse doesn't shorten the lifespan of an addict, the likelihood of accidental overdose might. With increasing tolerance, heroin addicts are forced to take ever increasing amounts of the drug simply to avoid sensations of withdrawal; and since the potency of the drug as sold at the street level is so variable, the risk of an accidental overdose is high. Heroin causes far more accidental deaths than any other drug.
Socially as well, heroin devastates the addict. Heroin becomes central to the existence of an addict, and lying, stealing and cheating friends and family are justifiable to secure the next needed dose. Friends and family are abandoned in favor of the drug, and other drug using peers, and the personality of the user can change dramatically. A heroin addiction changes a person, and forces previously unthinkable behaviors through the desperation for a fix.
