Effects Heroin Has on You

Heroin is one of mankind’s most dangerous and addictive drugs. The drug is also quite cheap, but people who are addicted can put hundreds of dollars a day into their habit.

Heroin, which grows in Mexico, Asia, and South America, comes from a bloom called opium poppy. The drug is highly potent and has been illegal since 1924 in the U.S. The substance often appears in a brown, grey, white powdery substance. Individuals will often swallow, sniff, or inject the substance into themselves. This drug can also be referred to as horse, slap, garbage, brown sugar, and many other terms.

Types of Heroin

Heroin doesn’t always appear the same. This drug comes in various forms and can be exploited in various ways, including snorting, smoking, or injecting. Let’s discuss this drug’s various forms and what it can do.

White powder

This form of heroin is it’s purest kind. The bulk of heroin distributed east of the Mississippi River arrives from Mexico and South America and appears in a brown, off-and-white color. Although white powder heroin is considered ‘better’, heroin is never pure heroin. 

Usually, traffickers combine the drug with cutting agents to broaden and increase income. Lactose, quinine, talc, sugar, and caffeine are typical cutting agents. Such chemicals will alter the heroin’s appearance. This substance is able to be dissolved in water at high temperatures, which is why people often smoke or inject the substance into themselves. 

Brown Powder

This heroin type is more commonly flavored than pure heroin by chemicals. Brown powder heroin is an increasingly common source of heroin manufactured in Mexico. This form of heroin is marketed primarily in the South, but also in Midwest and East Coast cities.

Since it can be smoked or snorted is typically taken needle-free, brown powder has gained popularity among suburban young people and others who may never have previously thought of using heroin. Brown powder heroin, depending on its cutting agents, can range in color from light beige to dirty brown.

Black tar heroin

Black tar heroin can appear as a black, sticky gel. Black tar heroin is a dark heroin shape ranging from a rock-like to a tough gel-like consistency. Black tar heroin is the most common heroin type in the western part of the Mississippi River, produced in Mexico. But in the Midwest and East Coast, it has become more popular.

The black tar is less concentrated than dried, powder forms of heroin, also named Chiva, Mexican tar, and Black. The deep red, medium brown and black dark color is the product of the cycle of affiliation. Black tar heroin is usually heated, dissolved, and injected through a needle. Black tar heroin injecting will contribute to many health issues, including serious skin infections which may cause a person to lose their arm from amputation. The consumer who buys heroin on the roads rarely knows the actual potency of the drug. Consumers are therefore prone to overdose or death by overdose.

More Heroin Types

China White

China White once applied to a very simple form for Southeast Asian white powder heroines. Nowadays, the name is usually used as a powder heroin slang term which contains heroin mixed with fentanyl. China White can also apply solely to fentanyl, which is one of the most dangerous drugs out there.

The drug is fatal and the recent spike in opioid-related overdose deaths has been linked to fentanyl-laced heroin. Fentanyl is between 25 and 50 times stronger than heroin.

Speedball

Heroin combination with a stimulant, like cocaine, is referred to as speedball. The two drugs create a dangerous “push-pull” impact on the body, according to the National Institute of Health. While heroin acts to slow breathing and cause drowsiness in the central nervous system, cocaine causes bodily functions to accelerate. Speedball may lead to a stroke, heart attack, aneurysm, or breathing defect. 

Gunpowder Heroin

On the west coast, a more sticky and apparently powerful version of black tar heroin called gunpowder heroin has emerged. Gunpowder heroine is a melting material that is like dried chocolate, according to a 2016 study in the Journal of Psychiatric Products.

Scramble

Scramble is a blend in a jelly capsule of white or brown heroin powder and other substances. A wide variety of additives, including quinine, lactose, fentanyl, opioids, and benzodiazepines are usually present. In Baltimore, Scramble is a popular form of heroin.

The opioid distribution in the United States has become more and more complex and dangerous as heroin usage increases. There is no safe use of heroin. Opioid therapy is the best way to achieve long-term recovery if you or someone you know is suffering from heroin addiction.

Effects of Heroin

Most people know that heroin is one of the most harmful drugs out there due to its addictive potential, as well as the short and long-term effects it has on a person. The experience of heroin use has been described by users as an overwhelming feeling of well-being. Injecting heroin also results in a “substance tug”. The high from this substance lasts between four to five hours and stays in the system for much longer.

For those who experiment with the drug, the effects of heroin may seem harmless at the moment, but they are extremely harmful is continual use is not stopped. 

Short-Term Effects

Those using heroin report a “rush” (pleasure rise or euphoria). However, after the rush resides, some other effects will take place, including:

• dry mouth
• warm flushing of the skin
• Pain in the arms and legs
• nausea and vomiting
• uncontrollable itching
• impaired mental functioning

Long Term Effects

Persons who use heroin will develop issues such as these in the long term:

• Insomnia
• Collapsed arteries of injectors with narcotics
• Damaged nasal tissue for users snorting it
• Brain disease
• Swollen tissue filled with pus
• Constipation
• Liver and kidney disease
• Pneumonia
• Mental disorders like depression or antisocial personality
• Sexual dysfunction for men
• Irregular women menstrual periods

Additional Effects

Heroin also includes additives like glucose, flour, or condensed milk which can block blood vessels and cause permanent harm to the heart, kidney, renal, or brain. The risk of contracting infectious diseases such as HIV and hepatitis (see “Injection Drug Use, HIV, and Hepatitis”) can also be increased by sharing drug injective equipment and by having impaired drug judgments. Heroin is an extremely dangerous substance to use, even after one time. There is no moderate use of heroin, a habit like that can only result in addiction.