Victory Over Addiction

Heroin
Heroin is a highly addictive, illegal addictive” substitute morphine.
drug. It is used by millions of addicts Morphine addiction soon became a
around the world who are unable to bigger problem than opium addiction.
overcome the urge to continue taking
As with opium, the morphine problem
this drug every day of their lives knowing
was solved by another “non-addictive”
that if they stop, they will face the horror
substitute . “Heroin”. However, heroin
of withdrawals.
proved to be even more addictive than
Heroin (like opium and morphine) is morphine. With the heroin problem
made from the resin of poppy plants. came yet another “non-addictive”
Milky, sap-like opium is first removed from substitute the drug now known as
the pod of the poppy flower. This opium methadone. First developed in 1937 by
is refined to make morphine, then further German scientists searching for a
refined into different forms of heroin. surgical painkiller, it was exported to the
FACTS:
Most heroin is injected, creating
US and given the trade name
additional risks for the user, who faces
“Dolophine” in 1947. Renamed
the danger of AIDS or other infection on
methadone, the drug was soon being
top of the pain of addiction.
widely used as a treatment for heroin
addiction. Unfortunately, it proved to be
even more addictive than heroin.
STREET NAMES:
H, Thai White, Brown Sugar, Smack
APPEARANCE:
Powdery or crumbly substance. Varying from
off white to dark brown.
PARAPHERNALIA:
Syringes, dirty spoons, belts or rubber tubing.
Stained or burnt foil. Tiny plastic baggies.
SMELL:
Vinegar smell
METHOD OF USE:
Smoked, snorted and injected.
EFFECTS:
Tiny pupils, sleepy eyes, slow breathing, runny
nose, flushed skin, itches and vomiting.
Suppressed appetite. Needle marks on body.
LONG TERM EFFECTS:
Bad teeth, weakened immune system, loss of
memory and intellectual performance,
Insomnia, respiratory problems. muscular
weakness and partial paralysis.
The origins of heroin
Heroin was first manufactured in 1898 by
the Bayer pharmaceutical company of
Germany and marketed as a treatment
for tuberculosis as well as a remedy for
morphine addiction.
A vicious cycle
During the 1850s, opium addiction was
a major problem in the world. The
“solution” was to provide opium addicts
with a less potent and supposedly “non-
By the late 1990s, the mortality rate of
heroin addicts was estimated to be as
high as twenty times greater than the
rest of the population.
Despite its dangers, cocaine use
continues to increase likely because
users find it so difficult to escape from
the first steps taken down the long
dark road that leads to addiction.
Victory Over Addiction - 21