AKA:

SMACK, BROWN, HORSE, SHIT, GEAR, H, SKAG; related products include OPIUM, and a range of pharmaceutical products including CODEINE, DIAMORPHINE, DIHYDROCODEINE, and PETHIDINE. Synthetic versions include METHADONE.

SOURCE:

Heroin is extracted and processed from the OPIUM POPPY, which is farmed in a wide range of countries. Large amounts of Heroin reaching the UK is currently produced in Afghanistan. Raw opium is refined and processed to produce street-heroin for the illegal market or Diamorphine for pharmaceutical purposes.

APPEARANCE:

Heroin is usually sold as a powder; colour ranges from white, off-white, yellowish, to reddish brown, the most prevalent type now on the market. A few years ago, there was a wider availability of brands such as CHINA WHITE, but Afghan-sourced heroin, which is reddish brown, is now prevalent and usually just called BROWN.

COSTS:

Heroin is usually sold in small quantities, typically £10 bags. By weight, Heroin costs between £40 and £60 a gramme.

QUALITY:

Street heroin is invariably heavily adulterated, but the extent of this varies wildly from area to area and dealer to dealer. Cutting of heroin ranges from 40% to 70%. Adulterants are often harmful, and include brick-dust, talc, cleaning powders, and other drugs. Periodically, very pure heroin is sold on the street, often causing a series of fatalities as people overdose on exceptionally strong gear.

METHODS OF USE:

Heroin is usually smoked or injected; it can also be sniffed or swallowed. Smoking is called "chasing the dragon." A small line of heroin is placed on a piece of silver foil, and heated from below. The heroin runs into a liquid, and gives off a curl of smoke, which is inhaled through a rolled tube of paper or foil. For injection, heroin is first dissolved in water.

EFFECTS:

Heroin is a powerful painkiller, and the absence of pain that it offers is combined with euphoric qualities. The combined effects are a sense of well being, feeling warm and content, drowsy and untroubled. At higher doses, the user may become heavily sedated, be sleepy, unable to talk, and appear to fall asleep for a few minutes at a time. Users often experience nausea or vomiting on the first occasions that they use heroin, or when returning to use after a period of abstinence.

HEALTH IMPLICATIONS:

The health problems attached to heroin use are numerous and complex. Some are related to the drug itself, some related to the drugs legal status, and others due to lifestyle attached to regular heroin use.

Heroin is physically addictive. After a period of regular use, there is an unpleasant period of withdrawal (often called "cold turkey,") as the drug is cleared from the body and the body adjusts to functioning without the presence of heroin. While unpleasant, sometimes lasting for over a week, withdrawal is not a life-threatening process. Far more difficult is to resist the psychological temptation to use during this period, in the knowledge that it would instantly alleviate the symptoms of withdrawal.

Regular use of heroin leads to an increase of tolerance to the drug. Initially, this means that one needs to take increasingly large amounts to achieve the same sense of euphoria and well being. Subsequently, it means that users find they need to use increasingly large quantities to prevent going into withdrawal, or just to feel "normal." This alone means that spending on heroin inevitably escalates with regular use.

The flip side of this is that, when heroin use is discontinued (for example after a spell in prison), tolerance drops. A user whose tolerance has dropped and who attempts to use the amount they were using when their tolerance was higher, stands a good chance of overdosing.

Overdosing on heroin is quite a frequent occurrence; amongst other effects, heroin can depress breathing, and in overdose, breathing can cease altogether ("having a bluey.") The risk of overdose is exacerbated by the variable quality of street heroin, and hospital admissions for overdose are common.

Death through overdose remains a significant cause of mortality amongst heroin users. While pure heroin is not especially toxic to human organs, contaminants in street heroin way well cause more damage, especially when they are injected. However, heroin does cause severe constipation amongst regular users. In addition, it acts to suppress the cough-reflex, leaving users at risk of chest and bronchial problems.

Further problems relate to heroin-lifestyle, and the need, especially with large habit, to raise in excess of £150 a day to pay for drugs. This can lead to poor diet, poor accommodation, and a host of resultant illnesses.

Many health problems relating to heroin use stem from injecting.

LEGAL STATUS:

Heroin is a Class A, Schedule 2 drug. It can legally be produced, supplied and possessed under Home Office Licence. Pharmaceutically pure Heroin (Diamorphine) is used for pain relief in medical settings, but is illegal to possess without authority. Medicines containing heroin-related compounds vary in their legal status. Strong painkillers like Pethidine are Class A, and some weaker ones, like DIHYDROCODEINE are Class B.

Some very weak ones like Buprenophine are Class C. Weak opiate-based pain killers such as Coproxamol and CoCodamol are prescription-only medicines, while a handful, such as Gee's Linctus and Kaolin and Morphine mixture, which contain small amounts of opiates, are Schedule 5 drugs and are available over the counter.

OTHER INFORMATION:

Technically, products derived directly from the Opium poppy are OPIATES, and those that are wholly synthetic are OPIOIDS. See METHADONE for further information about related compounds. Raw OPIUM does occasionally turn up for sale in this country, and there has been an upsurge in home cultivation. Heroin is experiencing something of resurgence in popularity, partly due to an increase in availability and purity, and a drop in cost. Some drugs agencies reported an increase in use amongst recreational drug users who smoked heroin to ease the comedown from Ecstasy and speed-fuelled weekends. While Heroin has associations with inner-city neglect, poverty and Britain in the 1980's, opiate abuse dates back to Victorian England and cuts across distinctions of class, race and gender.