Heroin Overview

Heroin (Diacetylmorphine or Diamorphine) is one of the opiate family, a group of pain killing drugs (analgesic’s) derived from the Opium poppy. Opium, may be refined into morphine, codeine and heroin. Heroin is made from the sap of the opium poppy, Papaver somniferum, which had been the most effective painkiller known to medicine for at least 7000 years. Heroin exerts its primary addictive effect by activating many regions of the brain; the brain regions affected are responsible for producing both the pleasurable sensation of "reward" and physical dependence. Together, these actions account for the user's loss of control and the drug's habit-forming action. It mimics certain chemicals in the brain that are already present (i.e. endorphins) that block pain and induce feelings of pleasure and contentment. Synthetic drugs manufactured to mimic the effects of opiates – such as Methadone (Physeptone) and Buprenorphine (Subutex) – are known as opioids. Heroin comes from the German ‘heroisch’ meaning powerful or heroic.

Most of the illicit heroin imported into Britain comes from poppies grown in Pakistan and Afghanistan. In the USA it comes mainly from Mexico, Columbia and also Asia. The main producers/importers are - Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Burma, Laos and Thailand. Heroin is made from Opium resin refined to morphine and then chemically changed to heroin. Before it is exported it's processed from the raw opium sap into a brown powder which is around 70% pure heroin. The process involves mixing it with a sequence of chemicals, including hydrochloric acid and acetic anhydride (a chemical used in the manufacture of film). The mixture is dried and sieved between stages. It is manufactured in remote laboratories using rudimentary equipment, pressed into bricks for bulk shipment to destination countries like the United Kingdom and the United States. Smaller amounts are smuggled by couriers who swallow heroin-filled latex balloons or condoms, before boarding commercial airlines.

Pure heroin is a white powder with a bitter taste. It also comes in tablets, as a liquid or in sealed glass ampoules. To the physician, it's a drug that stops pain in patients with serious illnesses, as well as being a cough suppressant. Most illicit heroin is a powder which may vary in color from white through cream to yellow, pink, light or dark brown, or gray, depending on what was used to "cut" it, and because of impurities left from the manufacturing process or the presence of additives. Brown heroin is intended for smoking and is usually mixed with caffeine during manufacture to help release the drug at high temperatures for absorption by the body. Heroin bought illegally from street dealers is usually impure and in the form of a powder or a solid rock which needs to be crushed down.

Pure heroin is rarely sold on the street, although when it is it normally results in deaths due to the users being unaware of the strength (having being used to the lower grade). A bag’s contents may contain only a portion of heroin. The remainder could be sugars, starch, powdered milk, or quinine. Unfortunately due to some dodgy dealers, it could also be something nasty like brick dust. Traditionally the purity of heroin in a bag has ranged from 1 to 10 percent. More recently, heroin purity has ranged from one to ninety-eight percent, with a national average of thirty-five percent.

Another form of heroin, "black tar," has also become increasingly available in the western United States. The color and consistency of black tar, which results from the crude processing methods used to illicitly manufacture the substance in Mexico. Black tar heroin may be sticky, like roofing tar or hard like coal, and its color may vary from dark brown to black. It is often sold on the street in its tar-like state at purities ranging from twenty to eighty percent. This heroin is most frequently dissolved, diluted and injected. The main other types are ‘China White’ and ‘Mexican Brown’, the China White being the best one as it is the strongest.

Soon after using, heroin crosses the blood-brain barrier. In the brain, heroin is converted to morphine and binds rapidly to opioid receptors. Users typically report feeling a surge of pleasurable sensation, a "rush." The intensity of the rush is a function of how much drug is taken and how rapidly the drug enters the brain and binds to the natural opioid receptors. Heroin is particularly addictive because it enters the brain so rapidly. The effects are almost immediate and the user may initially feel sick. A feeling of calm and warmth spreads through the body and any troubles or pains seem very distant and unimportant. At higher doses the user slips into a dreamlike state where they are not asleep or awake, but somewhere between. Not everyone enjoys the sense of detachment, and some first-time users describe an overwhelming feeling of discomfort. One effect of heroin that can be unpleasant is it's tendency to slow the action of the intestine. This can induce sickness, and although people usually become tolerant to this, most dependant users suffer from constipation.

After a ‘fix’ users will feel warm, happy and content with themselves and the world around them. All negative feeling disappear and they have no worries. All thoughts about mounting bills, no money etc. are forgotten for the time being. They will then start gouching (nodding off) and time goes very quickly. This will continue until the effects wear off and the heroin is finished.  The user will then need to start thinking about where to score and/or where to get the money from for the next hit.

As well as being a very powerful painkiller, heroin also depresses the central nervous system activity, making the heart rate and breathing slow down, suppressing the cough reflex and depressing the activity of the bowel, causing constipation. Some blood vessels dilate, releasing heat through the body, giving a feeling of warmth. Some woman can have irregular menstruation, although they are still able to conceive (see the Women's Page).  Opiates can change the brain stem, an area that controls automatic body functions and depress breathing; the limbic system, which controls emotions to increase feelings of pleasure; and can block pain messages transmitted by the spinal cord from the body.

Someone who uses heroin can talk and think coherently.  Although at high doses the user becomes drowsy and starts gouching.  Pupils become tiny (pinned) and the eyes roll back.  Even with doses sufficiently high to produce euphoria, there is little change to co-ordination, sensation or intellect. However, at higher doses the user may actually lose consciousness, leading to an overdose, coma and possibly death from respiratory failure. The chance of an overdose is greatly increased if other depressant drugs such as alcohol or tranquillizers are being used at the same time.

Heroin is a fast-acting drug, especially when injected or smoked. The euphoric effects of mainlining (injecting directly into a vein) can be felt within 7 to 8 seconds while a muscular injection brings about a similar feeling within 5 to 8 minutes. By smoking it on foil, the effects are delayed for a couple of minutes, building up a lesser high.

Heroin can be used in a variety of ways, depending on user preference and the purity of the drug. The typical heroin user today consumes more heroin than a typical user did just a decade ago, which is not surprising given the higher purity currently available at street level. Until recently heroin in the United States almost exclusively was injected either intravenously, subcutaneously (skin-popping), or intramuscularly, but there is now a high number of people snorting the drug.  In the UK it is mainly injected intravenously or smoked on foil, with a small number of people injecting subcutaneously and intramuscularly, and almost none snorting. 

Injection is the most practical and efficient way to administer low-purity heroin. The availability of higher purity heroin has meant that users can now snort or smoke the narcotic. Evidence suggests that heroin snorting is widespread or increasing in those areas of the country where high-purity heroin is available, generally in the north-eastern United States. This method of administration may be more appealing to new users because it eliminates both the fear of acquiring syringe-borne diseases such as HIV/AIDS and hepatitis, and the historical stigma attached to intravenous heroin use.

Once users have developed physical dependence and tolerance to opioids (needing more and more to get the same effect), positive pleasure is replaced by relief at simply taking the drug to maintain 'normality'.

There is no simple answer to the question of why people take or become dependant on heroin. It is probably most helpful to try and understand heroin use on an individual basis, weighing up the relative importance of factors to do with: the person - their psychological make-up, history, mood, emotional state, self-esteem and expectations of the drug; the drug - the physical and psychological effects of the drug on the individual and it's power to remove withdrawal symptoms; and society - the ease with which the drug can be bought, the number of people using it, the attitudes of the person’s peer group to the drug, employment status, etc.

Although some users may take it occasionally, heroin offers most users an unparalleled state of mind and once used, most find it difficult not to keep going back for more. Dependence can take weeks, months or even years to develop for those that can keep to only occasional usage. The pattern is usually one of reducing times between occasions of heroin use, and moving from single doses every now and then, to taking it every day for longer and longer periods. It has been documented that it only takes 3 days of constant use to become addicted, remembering that there are different levels of addition and withdrawal.  Most people will not notice the subtle withdrawal symptoms after this short a period and may put it down to feeling a little down, getting a cold, etc. The two issues with addiction are the length of use and the average morphine content in the body. Usually though, people will notice that they have become addicted between 1 - 2 weeks after starting constant use. After this amount of time, stopping will result in obvious withdrawal symptoms.  Sometimes people can manage to keep their use to occasional days or weekends only for a few months but most eventually slip up and end up using every day - slipping into an addiction.

Heroin can be:

• Injected into a vein ("mainlining").

• Smoked by running the powder on tin foil and inhaling the smoke through a foil tube (tooter). Known as 'chasing the dragon' because the user chases the heroin blob around the foil.

• Injected into a muscle (intramuscularly) or under the skin (subcutaneously or 'skin-popping').

• Smoked in a water pipe or standard pipe, mixed in a marijuana joint, or made into a joint with tobacco.

• Snorted as powder via the nose (mainly in the US).

Heroin Overview - The History 

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Last updated: 15 March 2003