Heroin comes in various forms; pure heroin is a white powder. The wide range of colors in heroin is because of the impurities left from the manufacturing process or the presence of additives. Heroin is typically a white or brownish powder or sold as the black sticky substance known as black tar heroin. It's made from morphine, a natural substance in the seedpod of the Asian poppy plant. Some medical uses of heroin are in treatments of acute pain, severe physical trauma, post-surgical pain, and chronic pain like end-stage cancer and other deadly illnesses. In other countries it is more common to use morphine in these situations then heroin.
In 2005, there was a shortage of heroin in the UK, because of a problem at the main UK manufacturer. Because of this, many hospitals changed to using morphine instead of heroin. Although there is no longer a problem with the manufacturing of heroin in the UK, some hospitals there have continued to use morphine. The majority, however, continue to use heroin. Heroin tablets are supplied for pain management. Heroin continues to be widely used in the United Kingdom, where it is commonly given if patients cannot easily swallow oral morphine solution. The advantage of Heroin over morphine is that Heroin is more fat soluble and so more potent by injection only, so a smaller dose is needed for the same effect.
The medical use of is controlled in the United Kingdom by the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. In the UK it’s a class A controlled drug which means its guidelines surrounding its administration, storage, and destruction. Possession of Heroin without a prescription is a prosecutable offence. When Heroin is prescribed in a hospital or similar environment, its administration must be watched by 2 people who...
... middle of paper ...
...ere craving for more. The user's physical reaction usually includes shaking, headache, drug craving, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, inability to sleep, agitation, anxiety, and depression. Certain types of drugs require a period of medical detox; others don’t. Opiates, such as heroin and methadone do require medical detox. Prescription medications need medically supervised detox. Other illegal drugs, such as crystal meth, marijuana, and cocaine do not require medical detox.
Works Cited
"Heroin Addiction Stories - Why Is Heroin So Addictive? - Drug-Free World."Heroin Addiction Stories - Why Is Heroin So Addictive? - Drug-Free World. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2014.
"Heroin Addiction Symptoms and Effects." Heroin Addiction. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2014.
"Heroin Topics." Heroin Detox. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2014.
Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2014.
6. http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/drugs/drugs-law/Class-a-b-c/, article title: ?Class A,B and C drugs?, by the home office, accessed 12th June 2008.
The documentary states that over 27,000 deaths a year are due to overdose from heroin and other opioids. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in 2015 prescription pain relievers account for 20,101 overdose deaths, and 12,990 overdose deaths are related to heroin (Rudd et al., 2010-2015). The documentary’s investigation gives the history of how the heroin epidemic started, with a great focus on the hospice movement. We are presented with the idea that once someone is addicted to painkillers, the difficulty in obtaining the drug over a long period of time becomes too expensive and too difficult. This often leads people to use heroin. This idea is true as a 2014 survey found that 94% of respondents who were being treated for opioid addiction said they chose to use heroin because prescription opioids were “more expensive and harder to obtain (Cicero et al., 2014).” Four in five heroin users actually started out using prescription painkillers (Johns, 2013). This correlation between heroin and prescription painkiller use supports the idea presented in the documentary that “prescription opiates are heroin prep school.”
In 1906, the Pure Food and Drug Act, that was years in the making was finally passed under President Roosevelt. This law reflected a sea change in medicine-- an unprecedented wave of regulations. No longer could drug companies have a secret formula and hide potentially toxic substances such as heroin under their patent. The law required drug companies to specify the ingredients of medications on the label. It also regulated the purity and dosage of substances. Not by mere coincidence was the law passed only about five years after Bayer, a German based drug company began selling the morphine derivative, heroin. Thought to be a safe, non-habit forming alternative to morphine, heroin quickly became the “cure-all drug” that was used to treat anything from coughs to restlessness. Yet, just as quickly as it became a household staple, many began to question the innocence of the substance. While the 1906 law had inherent weaknesses, it signaled the beginning of the end for “cure-all” drugs, such as opiate-filled “soothing syrups” that were used for infants. By tracing and evaluating various reports by doctors and investigative journalists on the medical use of heroin, it is clear that the desire for this legislative measure developed from an offshoot in the medical community-- a transformation that took doctors out from behind the curtain, and brought the public into a new era of awareness.
Where did this drug come from and what makes it different from any other drug that is on the market? Heroin's origins go back long before Christ was a bleep on the radar. It goes back to 1200 B.C. Or the Bronze Age. At that time how ever heroin would be known as its chemically altered state of the poppy seeds. Even at that time however the ancient peoples of that time knew that if the poppy seeds juice were collected and dried. the extract that was left behind could make a effective painkiller. This would later be named opium. There were small incidents of it appearing in Europe, for instance it was used by the gladiators in the Roman Colosseum. But as a whole it would take more then a millennium for opium to travel from the Middle East to the Europe. This only occurred do to crusades. In just a few hundred after that is went from a rarely used painkiller to a liquid that was said to cure all aliments and would even lead to the most humiliating defeat China Empire. In the 1803 opium became dwarfed by its new brother morphine which is named in honor of the Greek god Morpheus who is the god of dreams. Morphine is an extract of opium and is ruffly 10 times the strength of its counter part. After Morphine creation it was put to used almost at once to assist battle field victims. This was a mistake however, because this refined does of opium is also 10 times more addicting then it was in its original form. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers would retur...
Many of the problems associated with early sobriety do not stem directly from psychoactive substances. Instead they are associated with physical and psychological changes that occur after the substances have left the body. When a person regularly uses psychoactive drugs, the brain undergoes physical changes to cope with the presence of drugs in the body. When the drugs are removed from the body, the brain craves the drugs that it has become accustomed to and as the brain attempts to rebalance itself without the presence of psychoactive drugs the person often experiences feelings of confusion, pain, and discomfort. The symptoms that are experienced immediately after stopping drug use are called acute withdrawal.
National Institute of Drug Abuse (2010). Cocaine: How is Cocaine Abused? Retrieved from http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/research-reports/cocaine/how-cocaine-abused on 24th March, 2014.
The second factor is aggressive marketing by pharmaceutical companies. A recent trend in many communities in America is a switch from prescription opioids to heroin, which can be explained by the development of tolerance, the increasing difficulty in obtaining prescription pain drugs, and the fact that in some communities, heroin is cheaper and easier to get. Four in five heroin users started misusing prescription painkillers. In addition to increasing the risk of a fatal overdose, the increase in injection drug use has also contributed to the spread of infectious diseases such as HIV and hepatitis. Opioid use and misuse during pregnancy has led to a rising incidence of neonatal abstinence syndrome.
Heroin was originally synthesized in 1874 by a man named C.R Alder Wright. Created as a solution to opium, a drug that had plagued many American households. It was originally produced for medical purposes evidently becoming highly addictive. Heroin “... was originally marketed as a non-addictive substance” (“History of Addiction”) which inevitably increased its popularity. It became especially popular in places of poverty. Heroin became a solution to struggle. So common it was almost as if heroin was a prescribed medicine for hardship. Known as “[a] treatment of many illnesses and pain” (“A brief history of addiction”) but later revealed that it caused more harm than good. Being so easily accessible it became immensely common among musicians.
There are an estimated 25,000 heroin users in Victoria (Hodder, p.10). This is a very large amount of people on drugs, in the last 10 years it has been shown to increase and therefore the drug issue is becoming a major problem to all the people in Victoria.
Morphine has been used for many years in different cultures, and for different reasons. It has been abused, demolished, revived, and manufactured. It has saved many lives and ruined many more. It is the drug of choice for many who feel they need something to numb out the bad, and forget about the real. It is also the prescription of choice for men and women who just want to have their lives back. Although morphine addicts go through hell during their withdrawal stages, and how awful the drug can be through abuse, it offers very much to a wide array of patients suffering from diseases such as cancer, severe back pain, kidney stones, and pain associated in trauma.
"What Is Crystal Meth Addiction - Side Effects of Meth and Long Term Crystal Methamphetamine Effects." What Is Crystal Meth Addiction - Side Effects of Meth and Long Term Crystal Methamphetamine Effects. N.p., 2006-2014. Web. 11 Feb. 2014.
Blood and urine tests may also detect the types of abused drugs. But also in some cases there are certain signs and symptoms that provide clues that someone is on drugs (“Test and Diagnosis”). There is treatment out in communities that can help a person who is abusing the use of prescription drugs. Although, the treatment for a person who abuses prescribed drugs varies. But, counseling and psychotherapy are available in communities.
Gwinnell, Esther, and Christine Adamec. "drug addiction." Health Reference Center. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 20 Jan. 2014.
"Adenosine - What Is Adenosine?" Adenosine - What Is Adenosine? N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Mar. 2014.
Abuse can cause countless medical problems to the body. A person who is addicted will continue to stimulate themselves regardless if they are aware of the negative chain reactions. Once addicted, it becomes difficult to stop due to how the body has become dependent. Health will be harmed the more a stimulant is used. Health effects include: cardiovascular disease, strokes, cancer, HIV/AIDS, hepatitis, lung disease, mental disease, birth defects. Mental health is what keeps a person in the right mind to make better decisions and have better control in life. Drugs have the ability to change mood and behavior. If drugs have affected the brain already, the desire increases which changes mental health. Some may not realize that they have been affected their health negatively. “A person who abuses drugs may not realize they have a problem until pronounced effects of drug abuse are seen, often physically. While drug abuse effects on the body vary depending on the drug used, all drug abuse negatively impacts one 's health (Addictions Community). Since drugs create many health issues, treatment is not a simple task. Treatments are hard to obtain and addictions often go