Heroin is a highly addictive drug and its use is a serious problem in America. Recent studies suggest a shift from injecting heroin to snorting or smoking because of increased purity and the misconception that these forms of use will not lead to addiction. Anyone that is addicted to heroin will need help with the physical and emotional pain of withdrawal. Colorado Drug Rehab can help you whether you are looking for out-patient or residential drug treatment. Call 1-877-444-1137 to learn more about heroin addiction and to find effective drug programs that can take this "monkey off your back".
Heroin is processed from morphine, a naturally occurring substance extracted from the seedpod of the Asian poppy plant. Heroin usually appears as a white or brown powder. Street names for heroin include "smack," "H," "skag," and "junk." Other names may refer to types of heroin produced in a specific geographical area, such as "Mexican black tar."
Heroin abuse and addiction has been an addiction problem for hundreds of years, but with the mixing of fentanyl (a substance that is reported to be 1,000 times the strength of morphine), heroin is now more dangerous than it has been before. Overdoses as related to the number of heroin users, is at an all time high. Heroin has also become more affordable to college students and others that aren't forced to steal to keep up with their heroin addiction. Purer heroin can be smoked or snorted while less pure heroin must be injected intravenously. Many high school and college age youth are feeling safe snorting heroin, but are claiming that they would never use needles. Facts have been distorted to help them think that they won't acquire an addiction to heroin without injecting the drug, but they soon find that to be far from the truth.
About eight years ago a new drug, buprenorphine, was introduced to those who are trying to "kick" a heroin or opiate habit and find the withdrawals too painful to endure or they find the cravings after withdrawal too compelling to stay off of opiates. Buprenorphine has been used for pain in most European for many years, but the methadone industry successfully kept it from being sold in American. After much evidence showed that it was a much better substitute for heroin and other opiates and that the withdrawal from buprenorphine was relatively easy for some to step-down their dosage, it was allowed to be given by physicians in the U.S. However, due to pressure from the methadone industry, a physician must take a small educational course before he is given the certification to write buprenorphine prescriptions and, the real limiting factor being that any physician so certified can only have up to 30 patients at any given time. Colorado Drug Rehab can report from first hand knowledge that the methadone industry's limitation on buprenorphine has protected their business well. Colorado Drug Rehab is here to protect the lives of those addicted to heroin and not any other "industry"!
Colorado's Heroin use in relation to National Trends
As mentioned on the homepage, Colorado ranks in the top percentile in all areas of drug use and abuse in relation to other states. Therefore, this natioinal data is certianly relavent to the problem in Colorado:
• Use of heroin rose from 136,000 in 2005 to 338,000 in 2006 showing an astronomical resurgence in the use of heroin.
• In 2006 there were 91,000 persons aged 12 or older who used heroin for the first time with an average age of 20.7!
• Most heroin addicts (74 percent) have been in treatment for their addiction more than once, with 24 percent having been in treatment five or more times.
The following statistics show that those seeking help for heroin in Colorado who are 12 or older has stay constant for the past 10 years.
Colorado Treatment Adminisions
1995 |
2000 |
2005 |
1,807 |
1,808 |
1,718 |
Health Hazards
Heroin abuse is associated with serious health conditions, including fatal overdose, spontaneous abortion, collapsed veins and infectious diseases, including HIV/AIDS and hepatitis.
Short-term effects of heroin abuse appear soon after a single dose and disappear in a few hours. After an injection of heroin, the user reports feeling a surge of euphoria ("rush") accompanied by a warm flushing of the skin, a dry mouth, and heavy extremities. Following this initial euphoria, the user goes "on the nod," an alternately wakeful and drowsy state. Mental functioning becomes clouded due to the depression of the central nervous system.
Long-term effects of heroin appear after repeated use for some period of time. Chronic users may develop collapsed veins, infection of the heart lining and valves, abscesses, cellulitis, and liver disease. Pulmonary complications, including various types of pneumonia, may result from the poor health condition of the abuser, as well as from heroin's depressing effects on respiration.
In addition to the effects of the drug itself, street heroin may have additives that do not readily dissolve and result in clogging the blood vessels that lead to the lungs, liver, kidneys, or brain. This can cause infection or even death of small patches of cells in vital organs.
Tolerance, Addiction, and Withdrawal
Withdrawal, which in regular abusers may occur as early as a few hours after the last administration, produces drug craving, restlessness, muscle and bone pain, insomnia, diarrhea and vomiting, cold flashes with goose bumps ("cold turkey"), kicking movements ("kicking the habit"), and other symptoms. Major withdrawal symptoms peak between 48 and 72 hours after the last dose and subside after about a week. Sudden withdrawal by heavily dependent users who are in poor health is occasionally fatal, although heroin withdrawal is considered much less dangerous than alcohol or barbiturate withdrawal.
With regular heroin use, tolerance develops. This means the abuser must use more heroin to achieve the same intensity or effect. As higher doses are used over time, physical dependence and addiction develop. With physical dependence, the body has adapted to the presence of the drug and withdrawal symptoms may occur if use is reduced or stopped.
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