Heroin is an illegal and a very addictive drug in Opiates group. Heroin addiction is a serious problem in America. The last researches 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. 

  Heroin is made from morphine, a naturally occurring substance extracted from the seed pod of the Asian poppy plant. Heroin usually looks as a brown or a white powder. Heroin have such street names as "junk," "smack," "H,"and "skag."  Other names may refer to types of heroin produced in a specific geographical area, such as "Mexican black tar."

  Street heroin is mixed with other drugs or with substances such as powdered milk, quinine sugar powder or starch. Heroin can also be mixed with strychnine or other toxins. People who use heroin do not know the strength of the drug or its true effect on the organism; they are at risk of overdose or death.

 How is Heroin Used?

     Heroin is usually injected, smoked or snorted. Typically, a heroin addicted may inject four of more times a day. Injection in a vein provides the greatest intensity and most rapid feelings of euphoria (7 to 8 seconds), while the injection in muscles produces a little slow feelings of euphoria (5 to 8 minutes).

  When heroin is snorted or smoked, high effects are usually felt in 10 - 15 minutes after using. Although smoking and sniffing heroin do not produce a "rush" as quickly or as intensely as intravenous injection, NIDA researchers have confirmed that all three forms of heroin administration are addictive.

 Injection is a dominating method of using heroin among the  addicted ones. It was ascertained that  snorting heroin is now the most widely reported means of taking heroin among users admitted for drug treatment in New York,  Newark and Chicago.

  With the shift in heroin abuse standards appears more divergent group of users. According to research data older users is one of the largest user groups in most nations. Heroin has also been appearing in more affluent communities.