Detroit Drug Abuse: The Problem With Heroin

What is Heroin?

Heroin is a highly addictive illegal drug. The most widely abused and the fastest acting of the opiates, it is usually sold as a white or brownish powder or as the black sticky substance known on the streets as “black tar heroin.” Heroin is processed from morphine which is a naturally occurring substance derived from the seed pod of the Asian poppy plant. Street names associated with heroin include “smack,” “H,” “skag,” and “junk.” Other names refer to types of heroin produced in specific geographic areas, such as “Mexican black tar.”

Purer heroin is becoming more common but most street heroin is “cut” with other drugs or with substances such as starch, sugar, quinine, or powdered milk. Street heroin can also be cut with poisons such as strychnine for an example. Because a heroin user doesn’t know the actual strength of the drug, they are at a greater risk of overdose or death. Heroin is also extremely dangerous because of special problems such as the transmission of HIV and other diseases that can occur from sharing needles or other injection equipment. How is Heroin used?

Heroin is can be injected, sniffed/snorted, or smoked. A heroin abuser may inject up to four times a day. Intravenous injection provides the greatest intensity and the quickest onset of euphoria (6 to 9 seconds), while intramuscular injection produces a slower onset of euphoria (4 to 9 minutes). When heroin is smoked or sniffed, peak effects are usually felt within 10 to 15 minutes. Although smoking and sniffing heroin does not produce a “rush” as quick or intense as intravenous injection, research conducted by the NIDA (National Institute on Drug Abuse) has confirmed that all three forms of heroin administration are addictive.

Injection continues to be the main method of heroin use among addicted users in treatment programs. However, research shows a shift in heroin use patterns, from injection to sniffing and smoking. Sniffing/snorting heroin is now widely reported as a method of taking heroin by users admitted for drug treatment in New York, Chicago, Newark, and Detroit.

What are the long term effects of heroin use?

The most detrimental long-term effects of heroin are addiction itself. Addiction is a chronic, relapsing condition, characterized by compulsive drug seeking and use, and by neuro-chemical and molecular changes in the brain. The drugs literally change their brains

Long-term effects of heroin addiction are numerous. Again, the most serious is the addiction itself. Communicable diseases such as HIV/AIDS, hepatitis B are the most far reaching as they are able to be spread. Other serious effects of heroin use include: bacterial infection, collapsed veins, infection of the heart lining and valves, abscesses, arthritis and other rheumatic problems.

Physical dependence begins to form with higher doses of the drug. As with abusers of any addictive drug, people who abuse heroin begin to spend more and more time and energy seeking out and using the drug. Once addicted, the heroin abusers primary purpose in life becomes finding and using drugs.

Once physically dependence, the body adapts to the drug’s presence and withdrawal symptoms will occur if use is abruptly reduced. Withdrawal can begin within a few hours after the last use. Withdrawal symptoms include muscle and bone pain, restlessness, insomnia, vomiting, diarrhea, cold flashes with goose bumps, and leg muscle spasms. Symptoms of major withdrawal peak between 24 and 48 hours after the last use and subside after about a week, though in some cases users have shown continued withdrawal symptoms for months.

Withdrawal from heroin isn’t fatal to otherwise healthy adults, but it can cause death to the fetus of a pregnant addict. Physical dependence and the emergence of withdrawal symptoms were once thought to be the primary features of heroin addiction. It has been found that this may not be the case, since craving and relapse can often occur weeks and months after all symptoms of withdrawal have disappeared. Studies also show that patients with chronic pain who are prescribed opiates to function, often over extended periods of time, have few or no problems discontinuing the use of opiates after their pain is gone. This simply could be because the patient in pain is not seeking the rush sought by the addict.

Why are heroin users at special risk for contracting HIV/AIDS and hepatitis B and C?

Many heroin addicts often share needles and other paraphernalia, placing them at special risk of contracting HIV and other infectious diseases. Infection of injection drug users with HIV is spread primarily through reuse and sharing of contaminated syringes and needles.

Drug abuse is the fastest growing cause of the spread of HIV in the nation. For nearly one-third of Americans infected with HIV, injection drug use is a contributing factor. NIDA funded research has discovered that drug abusers can change the behavior that put them at risk for contracting HIV through drug abuse treatment, prevention, and community-based outreach programs. These treatments and programs can eliminate drug use as well as drug-related risk behavior such as sharing needles and unsafe sexual practices, thus reducing the risk of exposure to HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases. Drug abuse prevention and treatment are highly effective in preventing the spread of HIV.

The Corridor – The Corridor, is a film about Detroit filmmakers take trip down one of Detroit most know drug infested neighborhood, documenting the people and their consent battle with addiction creating a powerful film about drug and addiction. This group of film makers developed a unique relationship with addict in the Cass Corridor. In this documentary, drug addicts talk openly about how they got the streets and send a powerful message of caution to other about the danger of drug abuse. We will also take a look a root that grows on West Africa that many say will successfully treat heroin addict and break the cycle of addiction

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