Heroin, or diacetylmorphine (INN), also known as diamorphine (BAN), is a semi-synthetic opioid drug synthesized from morphine, a derivative of the opium poppy.
Recreational use
Diacetylmorphine is used as a recreational drug for the transcendent relaxation and intense euphoria it induces. Anthropologist Michael Agar once described heroin as "the perfect whatever drug." Tolerance quickly develops, and users need more of the drug to achieve the same effects. Its popularity with recreational drug users, compared to morphine, reportedly stems from its perceived different effects. In particular, users report an intense rush that occurs while the diacetylmorphine is being metabolized into 6-monoacetylmorphine (6-MAM) and morphine in the brain. Diacetylmorphine produces more euphoria than other opioids upon injection. One possible explanation is the presence of 6-monoacetylmorphine, a metabolite unique to diacetylmorphine. While other opioids of recreational use, such as codeine, produce only morphine, heroin also leaves 6-MAM, also a psycho-active metabolite. However, this perception is not supported by the results of clinical studies comparing the physiological and subjective effects of injected diacetylmorphine and morphine in individuals formerly addicted to opioids; these subjects showed no preference for one drug over the other. Equipotent injected doses had comparable action courses, with no difference in subjects' self-rated feelings of euphoria, ambition, nervousness, relaxation, drowsiness, or sleepiness.
Short-term addiction studies by the same researchers demonstrated that tolerance developed at a similar rate to both diacetylmorphine and morphine. When compared to the opioids hydromorphone, fentanyl, oxycodone, and pethidine/meperidine, former addicts showed a strong preference for diacetylmorphine and morphine, suggesting that diacetylmorphine and morphine are particularly susceptible to abuse and addiction. Morphine and diacetylmorphine were also much more likely to produce euphoria and other positive subjective effects when compared to these other opioids.
Data from The Lancet shows illicit heroin to be the most addictive and most harmful of 20 drugs.
One of the most common methods of illicit heroin use is via intravenous injection (colloquially termed "slamming" or "shooting up"). Heroin base (commonly found in Europe), when prepared for injection will only dissolve in water when mixed with an acid (most commonly citric acid powder or lemon juice) and heated. Heroin in the US is most commonly found in the hydrochloride salt form, requiring just water to dissolve. Users tend to initially inject in the easily accessible arm veins, but as these veins collapse over time, through damage caused by the acid, the user will often resort to injecting in other veins.
Recreational users may also administer the drug through snorting, or smoking by inhaling its vapors when heated; either with tobacco in a rolled cigarette or by heating the drug on aluminium foil from underneath. When heated the heroin powder changes to a thick liquid, similar in consistency to molten wax, and it will run across the foil giving off smoke which the user inhales through a tube, usually made from foil also so that any heroin that collects on the inside of the tube can be smoked afterward. This method of administration is known as chasing the dragon (whereas smoking methamphetamine is known as "chasing the white dragon").
The diacetylmorphine dose used for recreational purposes is dependant on the frequency and level of use. A first-time user may ingest between 5 and 20 mg of diacetylmorphine, while an addict may require several hundred mg per day.
Effects
The onset of diacetylmorphine's effects depends upon the route of administration. Studies have shown that the subjective pleasure of drug use (the reinforcing component of addiction) is proportional to the rate at which the blood level of the drug increases. Intravenous injection provides the fastest and most intense rush within seven to eight seconds. Intra-muscular injection produces a relatively slow onset of five to eight minutes. Snorting or smoking reaches peak effects within 10 to 15 minutes. If taken orally, the effects take approximately half an hour to set in, with an absence of a rush.
Possible long-term effects of intravenous usage of illicit heroin.
Main short-term effects of heroin usage.
Large doses of heroin can cause fatal respiratory depression, and the drug has been used for suicide or as a murder weapon.
Because significant tolerance to respiratory depression develops quickly with continued use and is lost just as quickly during withdrawal, it is often difficult to determine whether a heroin death was an accident, suicide or murder.
Traffic is heavy worldwide, with the biggest producer being Afghanistan. According to U.N. sponsored survey, as of 2004, Afghanistan accounted for production of 87 percent of the world's heroin. Afghan opium kills 100,000 people every year worldwide.
The cultivation of opium in Afghanistan reached its peak in 1999, when 350 square miles (910 km2) of poppies were sown. The following year the Taliban banned poppy cultivation, a move which cut production by 94 percent. By 2001 only 30 square miles (78 km2) of land were in use for growing opium poppies. A year later, after American and British troops had removed the Taliban and installed the interim government, the land under cultivation leapt back to 285 square miles (740 km2), with Afghanistan supplanting Burma to become the world's largest opium producer once more. Opium production in that country has increased rapidly since, reaching an all-time high in 2006. War in Afghanistan once again appeared as a facilitator of the trade. Some 3.3 million Afghans are involved in producing opium.
At present, opium poppies are mostly grown in Afghanistan, and in Southeast Asia, especially in the region known as the Golden Triangle straddling Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos and Yunnan province in the People's Republic of China. There is also cultivation of opium poppies in the Sinaloa region of Mexico and in Colombia. The majority of the heroin consumed in the United States comes from Mexico and Colombia. Up until 2004, Pakistan was considered one of the biggest opium-growing countries.
Risks
For intravenous users of heroin (and any other substance), the use of non-sterile needles and syringes and other related equipment leads to several serious risks:
the risk of contracting blood-borne pathogens such as HIV and hepatitis
the risk of contracting bacterial or fungal endocarditis and possibly venous sclerosis
abscesses
Poisoning from contaminants added to "cut" or dilute heroin
Chronic constipation
Addiction and increasing tolerance
Physical dependence can result from prolonged use of all opioids, resulting in withdrawal symptoms on cessation of use
Decreased kidney function (although it is not currently known if this is due to adulterants or infectious diseases).
A heroin overdose is usually treated with an opioid antagonist, such as naloxone (Narcan), or naltrexone, which has high affinity for opioid receptors but does not activate them. This reverses the effects of heroin and other opioid agonists and causes an immediate return of consciousness but may precipitate withdrawal symptoms. The half-life of naloxone is much shorter than that of most opioid agonists, so that antagonist typically has to be administered multiple times until the opioid has been metabolized by the body.
Depending on drug interactions and numerous other factors, death from overdose can take anywhere from several minutes to several hours due to anoxia because the breathing reflex is suppressed by µ-opioids. An overdose is immediately reversible with an opioid antagonist injection. Heroin overdoses can occur due to an unexpected increase in the dose or purity or due to diminished opioid tolerance. However, many fatalities reported as overdoses are probably caused by interactions with other depressant drugs like alcohol or benzodiazepines. It should also be noted that since heroin can cause nausea and vomiting, a significant number of deaths attributed to heroin overdose are caused by aspiration of vomit by an unconscious victim.
The withdrawal syndrome from heroin (the so-called cold turkey) may begin within 6 to 24 hours of discontinuation of the drug; however, this time frame can fluctuate with the degree of tolerance as well as the amount of the last consumed dose. Symptoms may include: sweating, malaise, anxiety, depression, priapism, extra sensitivity of the genitals in females, general feeling of heaviness, cramp-like pains in the limbs, excessive yawning or sneezing, tears, rhinorrhea, sleep difficulties (insomnia), cold sweats, chills, severe muscle and bone aches; nausea and vomiting, diarrhea, cramps, and fever.
Heroin assisted treatment, or diamorphine assisted treatment, refers to the prescribing of synthetic, injectable heroin to opiate addicts that do not benefit from or cannot tolerate treatment with one of the established drugs used in opiate replacement therapy like methadone or buprenorphine. For this group of patients, heroin assisted treatment has proven superior in improving their social and health situation. It has also been shown to save money, despite its high costs, as it significantly reduces costs incurred by trials, incarceration, health interventions and delinquency.
While the British system trusts the patient with weekly prescriptions, other countries had to impose stronger restrictions to avoid deviation to the illegal market. Patients there have to appear twice a day at a treatment center where they inject their doses of diamorphine under the supervision of medical staff. To avoid withdrawal symptoms in between injections, most patients are given an additional daily dose of methadone.
Jessica, as I mentioned at the start you will also have to work on this and learn more... this is from my experience, reading and researching to help you.
Now it is your turn... all the best, and all my positive vibes to you both..be strong, be brave and determined. There will be information he is not even aware of, so educate him. Take care---
