FRANK helps you find out everything you might want
to know about drugs (and some stuff you don't).
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What is heroin? Heroin is a drug made from morphine, which is extracted from the opium poppy. Opium has been around for many hundreds of years and was originally used to treat pain, sleeplessness and diarrhoea. When morphine is made into heroin to be used as a medicine, it’s called diamorphine, and is stronger than morphine or opium. Like many drugs made from opium (called opiates), heroin is a very strong painkiller. ‘Street’ heroin sold as 'brown' is sometimes now used by clubbers as a chill out drug after a big night out.
It is still just the same street heroin but some people mistakenly think it's not as addictive.
Here are some of the main effects and risks of heroin:
What does heroin look like?
Pure heroin is a white powder, but owing to the range of substances it's cut with, street heroin can be anything from brownish white to brown.
Prices can vary from region to region, but it has an average price of £10 a bag. Feeding a heroin habit can cost up to £100 a day.
How do people take heroin?
Heroin can either be smoked or dissolved in water and injected – and if it’s pure, it can also be snorted.
Injecting heroin – and sharing the equipment used for injecting, including needles or syringes – can be very risky, because it runs the risk of the person injecting catching or spreading a virus, such as HIV or hepatitis C.
There is also the risk that veins may be damaged and that an abscess or blood clot may develop.
What does heroin do to you?
Heroin gives users a feeling of warmth and well-being, bigger doses can make people sleepy and very relaxed.
It also slows down the way the body works and is a very strong pain-killer. The first dose of heroin can bring about dizziness and vomiting.
The effects of heroin can last for a number of hours so it is important to be careful using any other drugs or alcohol in that time.
What are the risks of taking heroin?
Taking heroin involves a number of risks. Here’s what it could do to you:
What is heroin cut with?
It’s common for heroin to be mixed with a variety of substances, such as sugar, starch, powdered milk, quinine or paracetamol – this increases its weight and the drug dealer’s profits.
Other substances are also sometimes added to heroin, including sedatives such as benzodiazepines and barbiturates.
Substances like nutmeg, brick dust, and even ground-up gravel have also been reported on occasions.
Can you get addicted to heroin?
Heroin is highly addictive and people can quickly become very dependent on it. Over time, the effects of heroin on the brain cause cravings and a strong drive to keep on using. As heroin is used on a regular basis, the body builds up a tolerance, so that users have to start taking more and more. Initially this increase in dose is needed just to get the same high, but then it is needed to feel 'normal', and in time, it is required to avoid very unpleasant withdrawal symptoms.
Doctors have developed a number of effective ways to treat addiction to street heroin. These include initially using certain safer drugs to replace the street heroin, known as opiate substitutes. The most common opiate substitutes are methadone and buprenorphine.
Other drugs are available once you have become drug-free, that block the effects of heroin – so you can't get a high. All these drug treatments are intended to supplement the counselling and social support that normally is needed to help in becoming drug-free and to recover from addiction.
Heroin and the law
What if you’re caught?
If the Police catch you with heroin, they’ll always take some action. This could include a formal caution, arrest and prosecution.
Did you know?
Right then, where to start. Basically I’ve been on and off (mostly on) heroin for the last 12 years, started when I was about 18 and I’m now 30. I can honestly say that in that time it has controlled every single day of my life, from going to work to going on holiday. If I didn’t have any meth or gear then I wouldn’t go. Its that simple.
I was about thirteen years old when I found a bottle of methadone in the kitchen cupboard. I recognised the name as I always had my head in my Mum’s magazines. I knew it wasn’t ordinary medicine. My curiosity got the better of me, so I went to school and asked a teacher why someone would take methadone.
I love drugs but over a lifetime of them I have finally accepted that however much you love them they dont love u or help your mind. If they are taken once in a while its not so bad but most ppl REALLY cannot keep it that way. Seen too many m8s lose jobs, health, morals, mental well being. Taking em = russian roulette with your future. Not many ppl can control usage of fave drug. It pains me 2 admit it - but they aint gona save you from any dark place, just take u deeper in2 it - eventually. Truth! Wish it was otherwise........
My uncle was always in the bad crowd. he was my mum's step brother and was put in a care home at the age of 10. I always knew he took drugs but also class A. His favourite was crystal meth. he took heroin and crack aswell. He got in trouble with the police and then died of an overdose. My other uncle, came to our door and burst into tears, if YOU don't want your family this upset then PLEASE don't do drugs.....
This depends on which drug you are talking about and what method is being used to test for the drug. The list below shows the drug detection times (using a urine test) for the most common drugs:
By mixing drugs you increase the chances of having a bad time. The effects of the drugs might be greatly increased, the drugs might interact in an unexpected way or one drug may stop part of your body working properly which makes the other drug(s) that have been taken more dangerous.
All drugs are potentially dangerous and have varying effects on individuals, so it is not possible to name the worst drug. For more information on the effects and risks of various drugs go to the A-Z of drugs.
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