Heroin
Category: Opiate (Painkiller)
Legal Status
A controlled substance, it is an offence unless prescribed by a doctor or pharmacist to import, distribute, produce or supply it.
Short-term effects
Heroin is relatively potent, easily dissolved in water for injecting, and penetrates the blood-brain barrier much more quickly than its parent drug morphine. It can also be smoked giving it a practically immediate effect. For all these reasons heroin is the opiate preferred by many drug users. Effects last 3-6 hours. After injection there can be an intensely pleasurable rush. Withdrawal begins after 8 hours.
Long-term effects
Heroin invariably leads to physical and psychological dependency. Dependence can occur after a few days. Withdrawal, once addicted, is difficult, and the symptoms include drowsiness, sweats, bone and muscle pain, diarrhoea, cramps, anxious breathing, vomiting and possibly even coma. Overdosing can be fatal, as can combining it with large amounts of alcohol. Sharing needles carries a greater risk of infection with HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis.
How long it stays in your system?
Can last in your system approximately 4 days.
Scientific / Trade or Slang Name:
A strong painkiller, Smack, Skag, H, Brown, Gear, Tack, Yack, Junk.
Method of use
Smoked, Sniffed or injected.
Signs & Symptoms after a fix or after smoking it:
- very small pupils when stoned
- light coloured eyes turn bright blue; eyes take on a glassy appearance
- "Goofing Off" (looks like nodding off, its hard for the person to keep eyes open)
- inability to finish sentences; slurred sppeech
- shallow breathing
- scratching
- excessive smoking
- loose facial muscles
- blood stains on clothes (due to using needles); bloody tissues
- 'track' marks on body (marks left by needles, especially on hands, arms and legs alothough any vein can be used) Long sleeves in warm weather (hiding track marks on arms)
- burnt holes in furniture, bed linen or clothes caused by "goofing" when smoking a cigarette
- burnt tin foil (due to "Chasing the Dragon" - (smoking heroin)
- spoons going missing in house, spoons with a blackened underside (due to cooking heroin)
- cut filters from cigarettes
- ties or laces in pockets (tourniquets)
After effects:
Runny nose and eyes, excessive yawning, agitation, cold sweats, hot flushes, overeating/undereating, severe diarrhoea after constipation, dry retching which produces bile, constant knot in stomach, nausea, the shakes/spasms in arms and legs, highly enlarged pupils, severe cramps in stomach and back of legs, panting, sleeplessness, loss of energy, crankiness, depression, gooseflesh skin, violent spasms in the small of the back causing back to arch.
Warning: Safe storage of methadone:
Accidental poisoning by methadone occurs, particularly as a result of children ingesting a parent's methadone. Health care professionals have a responbsibility to provide information and guidance to methadone users on safe storage of methadone.
While at home, alway keep methadone in a safe place - preferably in a locked box or cabinet - out of the reach of children and clearly marked to prevent anyone else from taking it accidetally. Remember: Methadone is a very strong drug. If anyone in the home accidentally drinks methadone, call 999 or an ambulance immediately.
