• Heroin is an opiate drug that is synthesized from morphine, a naturally occurring substance extracted from the seed pod of the Asian opium poppy plant.
• Heroin usually appears as a white or brown powder or as a black sticky substance, known as “black tar heroin.”

• Heroin can be injected, snorted/sniffed, or smoked 
• Injecting with a needle so it can go straight into bloodstream
• snorting through the nose so it can go straight into bloodstream through nasal tissues
• smoking so it can go into lungs

• heroin is  illegal 
• Also can be used for long term effects 
• and short term effects

• Heroin effects the central nervous system 
• heroin is effecting the brain almost immediately after it is used

Short term effects would be 

• warm flushing of the skin
• a dry mouth and the feeling of having "heavy" arms and legs.
• After the initial rush, users will go into an alternately wakeful and drowsy state sometimes called "on the nod."

Most Short term effects 

• Because it beats down the central nervous system
• "cloudy" mental functions
• users begin to breath slower and can reach the point of reparatory failure

long term effects

• Infection of the heart lining and valves, normally due to lack of sterile technique. 
• Liver Disease 
• kidney disease 

More long term effects 

• Pulmonary Complications
• skin infections and abscesses
• scarred or collapsed veins 

• HIV
• Hepatitis virus
• higher risk of HIV/ blood born viruses

Symptoms

• Shortness of breath
• Dry mouth
• Constricted (small) pupils
• Sudden changes in behavior or actions
• Disorientation
• Cycles of hyper alertness followed by suddenly nodding off
• Droopy appearance, as if extremities are heavy

"Heroin Addiction Symptoms and Effects." Heroin Addiction. Web. 17 May 2012. <http://www.timberlineknolls.com/drug-addiction/heroin/signs-effects>.

Symptoms 

• Lying or other deceptive behavior
• Avoiding eye contact, or distant field of vision
• Substantial increases in time spent sleeping
• Increase in slurred, garbled or incoherent speech
• Sudden worsening of performance in school or work, including expulsion or loss of jobs

More Symptoms 

• Decreasing attention to hygiene and physical appearance
• Loss of motivation and apathy toward future goals
• Withdrawal from friends and family, instead spending time with new friends with no natural tie
• Lack of interest in hobbies and favorite activities
• Repeatedly stealing or borrowing money from loved ones, or unexplained absence of valuables

More Symptoms 

• Hostile behaviors toward loved ones, including blaming them for withdrawal or broken commitments
• Regular comments indicating a decline in self esteem or worsening body image
• Wearing long pants or long sleeves to hide needle marks, even in very warm weather

• Weight loss
• Runny nose (not explained by other illness or medical condition)
• Needle track marks visible on arms
• Infections or abscesses at injection site
• For women, loss of menstrual cycle (amenorrhea)
• Cuts, bruises or scabs from skin picking

• Heroin produces a "downer" effect that rapidly induces a state of relaxation 
• Loved ones or co-workers may notice a number of signs of heroin use
• Users build tolerance to heroin, leading to increases in the frequency and quantity of heroin consumption.

• A lot of treatments are available for heroin addiction.
• Just like mostly every other drug, it is easier to treat  when the addiction is identified earliest as possible 

Treatment 

• medication taken orally, Methadone, to help narcotic additions
• short term relief for 24 hours up to 36 hours 

treatment 

• LAAM, taken orally and reduces what the heroin does to you
• blocks effects of heroin for up to 72 hours, 3 days

• Heroin is a depressant
• its a pain killer and depresses nerve transmissions
• heroin depresses the area of the brain that controls survival functions

Class: 

There is class A, B, and C of drugs

these classes have to do with the different levels of penalty for using or possessing. Heroin is class A.

Why?

• People take heroin because it makes them feel cosy and warm and relaxed

• The first time you take heroin you usually throw up. 
• Heroin is so addictive that after the second or third time of use you have to take it just to feel normal

• Heroin is the most fast-acting of all the opiates. When injected, it reaches the brain in 15-30 seconds; smoked heroin reaches the brain in around 7 seconds.

• Experienced users will inject between 2-4 times per day.
•  After taking heroin, some people feel cocooned and emotionally self-contained. 
• Others feel stimulated and sociable. Either way, there is a profound sense of control and well-being. 

• The effects usually wear off in 3-5 hours
•  depending on the dose.

http://opioids.com/heroin.html

Effects to the Heart:

• Heroin reduces people’s heart rate and blood pressure
• it can lead to pulmonary oedema – this is where fluid backflows to your lungs due to the extra strain on your heart, and is a sign of heart failure.

• Heroin can slow down your breathing rate which can cause respiratory failure and death from cardiac arrest.
• Injecting heroin increases the risk of endocarditis – a serious heart condition, which many people with congenital heart disease are already more susceptible to. There is also obviously a risk of HIV or hepatitis for anyone injecting drugs.

• Heroin enters the brain, where it is converted to morphine and binds to receptors known as opioid receptors. 
• These receptors are located in many areas of the brain (and in the body), especially those involved in the perception of pain and in reward. 

• After an intravenous injection of heroin, users report feeling a surge of euphoria (“rush”) accompanied by dry mouth, a warm flushing of the skin, heaviness of the extremities, and clouded mental functioning. 
• Following this initial euphoria, the user goes “on the nod,” an alternately wakeful and drowsy state. 

• With regular heroin use, tolerance develops, in which the user’s physiological (and psychological) response to the drug decreases, and more heroin is needed to achieve the same intensity of effect. Heroin users are at high risk for addiction
• it is estimated that about 23 percent of individuals who use heroin become dependent on it.

Physical Appearance 

• Flushed skin
• slow moving
• drowsiness
• small "pinpoint" pupils

Stats:

• Amount of teen heroin users are declining
• 12th graders the numbers have gone from 3.0%- 2.0%
• total amount of teen users has dropped from 3.1%- 2.4% from 2001

• 3.8 million people (1.5 percent of the population above 12) say they have tried heroin at least once in their lifetimes.
• 560,000 people used heroin last year.
• 338,000 people used heroin last month.
• The rate of heroin lifetime heroin use is higher among those in prison (23.4 percent for State and 17.9 percent for Federal).

• The average age of first heroin use was 23.4 years in 2008.
• In 2008, it is estimated there were 213,000 current heroin users in the U.S.
• Most heroin addicts report having been introduced to heroin by someone they trusted.
• Of 12^th-graders, 1.2% report having used heroin in their lifetime.
• Between 2008 and 2009, there was an increase in lifetime drug use of 10^th-graders and heroin injection increased in this group.

• Last year, there were approximately 84,000 visits to emergency rooms in the US due to heroin.
• Over 80% of heroin users inject with a partner, yet 80% of overdose victims found by paramedics are alone.
• The dependent person use between 150 - 250 milligrams per day. Divide into 3 doses.

• The heroin addict spends between $150 to $200 per day to maintain a heroin addiction.
• Children as young as 13 have been found involved in heroin abuse. According to statistics in 1999 heroin overdose has caused more deaths than traffic accidents.

Percent:

Males 61%

12-17- 15%

35+ - 33%

• white- 53%
• Black- 34%
• hispanic- 12% 

Heroin Drug Dangers

by: Mary Ann Littell

• "13 million people americans use illegal every month. Some 600,000 of those people are regular heroin users" 

Heroin Drug Dangers

by: Mary Ann Littell

• a white powder
• Nicknames: horese, black tar, baseball, deuces, sweet dreams, dead on arrival, bulldog
• sniffed, smoked, injected  

Heroin Drug Dangers

by: Mary Ann Littell

Costs:

• $10 for about one-tenth to one-eighth of a gram

Heroin Drug Dangers

by: Mary Ann Littell

In  1994: deaths

total: 3522

heroin/cocain: 1666

Heroin/ Alcohol: 1507

Heroin Drug Dangers

by: Mary Ann Littell

overdose:

• blue lips
• decreased breathing
• too much fluid in lungs
• irregular heartbeat

Heroin Drug Dangers

by: Mary Ann Littell

• Heroin Use

1. loss of family and friends, not wanted to be around a user
2. loss of job, cant work and have a job if you cant take care of yourself
3. arrested or going to jail, heroin is illegal. will be hard to get a job after that 

Heroin Drug Dangers

by: Mary Ann Littell

Help is always avalible

1. doctors
2. hospitals
3. substance abuse agencies
4. drug treatment councelors and programs
5. hot line 

Heroin Drug Dangers

by: Mary Ann Littell

Street names

1. ack
2. antifreeze
3. aunt hazel
4. golden girl
5. H
6. Hell dust
7. jive
8. junk
9. big H
10. brown sugar
11. dirt
12. joy powder
13. dyno
14. witch hazel 

Heroin

by: Geraldine Woods

Heroin is a narcotic. The word "Narcotic" comes from the greek word narkoun which means "to benumb" or "to be numbed"

Heroin does that immedietly after taking it.

the drug chaanges your body in every way

Heroin

by: Geraldine Woods

Why?

there are a lot of reasons why someone might start.

• home life/ home environment
• curiosity
• peer pressure
• pain and hurt

Heroin

by: Geraldine Woods

regular use of heroin slows down the many functions of the body.

including the respiratory 

digestive system 

• Addicts often lose their appetite or if they eat a lot they get constipated
• they often eat a lot of sweets because sugars is the only thing their body can digest
• thats the reason that heroin addicts look so unhealthy because they dont get a lot of nutrients 

users life

• drugs are often a way to escape
• escape hard or unwanted lives or life styles
• its looked as a substitute for everything they have been lacking in their lives 

Users life

• unfortunately the drugs become everything that becomes sad 
• and only leads to a destructive future

Users life

• Heroin gives the users a different perspective on life.
• it gives users order and direction but only on the bad stuff users cant focus on anything but finding heroin and obtaining the drugs in need to survive

users will search and "quest" so much for these drugs in need to live. 

even something that sounds so "sickening" to people becomes natural routine 

• Heroin, just like most drugs helps their view of a lack of life
• but really its just damaging big time in the end
• it gives users a way to get their mind off "real" problems

Health: 

• Loss of appetite
• constipation
• sever malnutrition
• physical appearance 

• being clean is no longer important
• you develop needle tracks all over your body
• thick scars, even if you stop
• sharing of needles, HIV/AIDS

• every time you get high there comes a point when you crave it more
• you want nothing more but to get high
• thats why so many people end up overdosing

Overdose:

• when you are so high you dont even realize that you are overdosing
• you have no idea what you are doing

"you are to high to realize that you are giving yourself a fatal dose"

Emotions:

• leads to depression
• leads to suicide
• forced into things like murder, dealing, ect.
• they have no respect
• in need to get the drug constantly
• they hate themselves for dependance on the drug
• they are "slaves"

The Law:

• heroin is illegal
• sale and possession is a crime

First time offender 

first time offenders caught using heroin for reasons not connected to any other crimes may be offered a diversion program.

where people are able to volunteer, get counseling, prevention education, ect.   

Second offense:

You dont have a choice on your second defense.

At that point your charged as a criminal.

Are arrested 

 Cost:

Street heroin is about $10-$25

"hard-core" drug addicts pay about $150- $200 a day to support their habbits

Heroin messes with everyones emotions.

not only the drug users but also the people around them.

it changes everyone opinion about you

Central nervous system:

spinal cord

brain

Central Nervous system:

movement

speech 

memory 

thinking 

Ect.

Central nervous system shuts down:

• brain shuts down
• muscles and movement shut down

• Central nervous system:
• organs shut down
• respiratory system
• digestive system 

People start heroin to save them from what they call and terrible life. 

• they dont know that its just gonna damage them more
• there are other ways to help with a hard life 

Heroin is illegal and costs a lot of money to get and keep using.

not only does your emotions change but so does your whole life

Cost is $10 on the street but you never know what you are getting. You could get ripped off.

the costs for ruining your life are even more expensive that just the terrible money situations that you are going to be in.

you risk the cost of losing friends and family and money, your house, respect of yourself and others. losing everything you have just because you are so hooked to a drug isnt even worth it...

So, why even start?!