HEROIN

First synthesized from morphine in 1874, heroin was not extensively used in medicine until the early 1900s. Commercial production of the new pain remedy was first started in 1898. It initially received widespread acceptance from the medical profession, and physicians remained unaware of its addiction potential for years. The first comprehensive control of heroin occurred with the Harrison Narcotic Act of 1914. Today, heroin is an illicit substance having no medical utility in South Africa.

Four foreign source areas produce the heroin available in South Africa: South America( Colombia), Mexico, Southeast Asia (principally Burma), and Southwest Asia (principally Afghanistan). However, South America and Mexico supply most of the illicit heroin marketed in South Africa. South American heroin is a high-purity powder primarily distributed to metropolitan areas on the East Coast.
Heroin powder may vary in color from white to dark brown because of impurities left from the manufacturing process or the presence of additives. Mexican heroin, known as "black tar," is primarily available in the western United States. The color and consistency of black tar heroin result from the crude processing methods used to illicitly manufacture heroin in Mexico. Black tar heroin may be sticky like roofing tar or hard like coal, and its color may vary from dark brown to black.

Pure heroin is rarely sold on the street. A "bag" (slang for a small unit of heroin sold on the street) currently contains about 30 to 50 milligrams of powder, only a portion of which is heroin. The remainder could be sugar, starch, acetaminophen, procaine, benzocaine, or quinine, or any of numerous cutting agents for heroin. Traditionally, the purity of heroin in a bag ranged from 1 to 10 percent. More recently, heroin purity has ranged from about 10 to 70 percent.

Heroin "Tar"

Black tar heroin is often sold in chunks weighing about an ounce. Its purity is generally less than South American heroin and it is most frequently smoked, or dissolved, diluted, and injected.

In the past, heroin in the United States was almost always injected, because this is the most practical and efficient way to administer low-purity heroin. However, the recent availability of higher purity heroin at relatively low cost has meant that a larger percentage of today's users are either snorting or smoking heroin, instead of injecting it. This trend was first captured in the 1999 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, which revealed that 60 to 70 percent of people who used heroin for the first time from 1996 to 1998 never injected it. This trend has continued. Snorting or smoking heroin is more appealing to new users because it eliminates both the fear of acquiring syringe-borne diseases, such as HIV and hepatitis, as well as eliminating the social stigma attached to intravenous heroin use. Many new users of heroin mistakenly believe that smoking or snorting heroin is a safe technique for avoiding addiction. However, both the smoking and the snorting of heroin are directly linked to high incidences of dependence and addiction.

Heroin

According to the 2003 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, during the latter half of the 1990s, heroin initiation rates rose to a level not reached since the 1970s. In 1974, there were an estimated 246,000 heroin initiates. Between 1988 and 1994, the annual number of new users ranged from 28,000 to 80,000. Between 1995 and 2001, the number of new heroin users was consistently greater than 100,000. Overall, approximately 3.7 million Americans reported using heroin at least once in their lifetime.

Heroin "Poppers"

Heroin, is an illegal, highly addictive drug, is both the most abused and the most rapidly acting of the siates. Heroin is processed from Morphine, a naturally ocurring substance extracted from the seed pod of certain varieties of poppy plants.

Heroin "Poppers"

The DEA Heroin signature program indicates that approximately 65 percent of the Heroin seized in the United States originates in South America and another 17 percent comes from Mexico. Further evidence of increasing amounts of Mexican Heroin was substantiated by recent independent studies that indicated that 29 percent of the Heroin used in the United States comes from Mexico.
Heroin is a white powder with a bitter taste. Because of inpurities left from the manufacturing process or the presice of additives such as sugar, starch or powdered milk, Heroin may vary in color from white to dark brown, the Heroin is rarely sold on the street. Historically, the puri-of Heroin ranged from one to ten percent. More recently, Heroin purity has ranged from one to ninety-eight percent, a national average of thirty-five percent.
Heroin is usually injected, sniffed/snorted, or smoked.
basically, a Heroin abuser may inject up to four times a day.
Intravenous injection provides the greatest intensity and most rapid onset of euphoria (7 to 8 seconds), while intra-muscular injection produces a relatively slow onset of euphoria {5 to 8 minutes). When Heroin is sniffed or smoked, peak fects are usually felt within 10 to 15 minutes.
Short Term Effects: Suppression of pain, euphoria, a "rush," opressed respiratory rate, clouded mental functioning, nausea/vomiting, fatal overdose, spontaneous abortion.
LocalComplications: Scarred/collapsed veins, bacterial infections of the blood vessels and heart valves, abscesses, liver or kidney abase; lung complications; infectious disease.
Long Term Effects: Addiction, tolerance and physical dependence; ruption of the heart lining and valves, arthritis and other rheumatory problems; pulmonary complications, including various types of pnem onia.
Withdrawal Effects: Restlessness, muscle and bone pain, insomnia, diarrea, vomiting, cold flashes, leg movements.
Although smoking and sniffing Heroin do not produce a rush as quickly or as intensely as intravenous injection, National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) researchers have confirmed that all three forms of Heroin administration are addictive. Injection continues to be the predominant method of Heroin use among addicted users seeking treatment. Researchers however, have observed a shift in Heroin use patterns, from injection to sniffing and smoking.
Heroin addicts are at risk for contracting HIV, Hepatitis C, and other infectious diseases. Drug abusers may become infected with HIV, Hepatitis C, and other blood-borne pathogens through sharing and reuse of syringes and injection paraphernalia that have been used by infected individuals. They may also become infected with HIV and although less often, to Hepatitis C through unprotected sexual contact with an infected person. Injection drug use has been a factor in an estimated one-third of all HIV and more than half of all Hepatus C cases in the nation.

Psalm of a Heroin addict
Heroin is my shepherd, it will always be wanting He lays me down in a sewage ditch To troubled waters he leads me He destroys my sole He leads me in the footstep of wickedness, Yes, I go through poverty and will fear all calamity Because you are with me - You're needle and pellet comforts me You pillage the table of my family You make my head empty My cup runs over with grief Heroin addiction will follow me to the ends of my life And I will live in the house of doom until the length of day

Heroin is considered one of the most addictive and dangerous drugs in the world. This drug is finding its way into South Africa at an alarming rate and is it clear that Heroin is the most popular choice for drug abuse amongst teenagers.
Heroin is a semi synthetic opiate synthesized from morphine.

METHOD OF USE

Heroin can be used in four (4) ways, namely :

AVERAGE DOSE

5-15mg, up to 250mg a day.

The result of an OVERDOSE
SOUTH AFRICAN MARKET

During the 80's, Heroin was a relatively unknown drug in South Africa, but since then has secured a tight hold on the drug market.
Heroin was first introduced in South Africa in the form of a brown substance that was usually inhaled by the "Chasing the Dragon" process. As mentioned previously, today Heroin is mainly injected and snorted.
Heroin was also relatively expensive (±R250 - R300 per gram), but currently addicts can obtain Heroin for as little as R30.
The low price of the drug and the strong physical effects that Heroin has make it very attractive for the youth and therefore it is common to find school children from the ages 12 - 14 that are addicted to this drug.
When asked how he obtained clients, a drug dealer from Johannesburg replied that he would visit a place where young people are having a party and distribute Heroin for free. The very next day all these people would willingly become his clients.
Heroin can be classified as the most dangerous drug amongst the youth of South Africa, not because the number that use Heroin, but because of the physical addiction that it causes.

EFFECTS OF HEROIN

Heroin is a depressant. As soon as a person uses Heroin he/she will find that he/she reaches a very high level of relaxation and it seems as if the person has gone into a very deep trance or coma. The long-term use of Heroin can lead to very serious decay of the body like serious heart valve regurgitation, brain damage as well as damage to the organs of the body, such as the kidneys, liver and the lungs. Because it is such a very strong depressant and muscle relaxant it has happened that during overdosing the heart valves were affected and the heart just stops beating.
It was also found the in cases where Heroin addicts inject themselves in the normal places, such as the arms, they could not inject in the same place for very long as the veins collapse and become hard.
When this happens, they start injecting themselves in unusual places, such as :

the feet (between the toes)
behind the knees
in the groin area
the neck
It was also found that where heroin addicts inject themselves, they cannot inject in the same place, such as the arms, for a prolonged period since the veins collapse and become hard.
Heroin is an unpredictable drug; therefore users overdose regularly.
It is known that a certain hospital in Pretoria treats between 10 - 25 cases of overdosing on Heroin weekly. Most of these cases are teenagers under the age of 18.
The misuse of Heroin is holding the largest threat for teenagers in South Africa. It is slowly but surely becoming the drug of choice amongst most teenagers, because it is :
cheap
physically addictive
easily obtainable

STREET NAMES

H
Smack
Horse
Junk
Hairy / Harry
China White

PHYSICAL EFFECTS OF HEROIN

physical and psychological dependency
serious physical deterioration
weight loss / appetite loss
unable to concentrate
less physical activities
drowsy
lung problems
constipation
continuous infections
impotence / decrease in sex drive

Heroin (DOWNER) causes pupils to contract.
PHYSICAL EVIDENCE OF HEROIN

tinfoil that is burnt black
funnels, made out of tinfoil, that look like straws
injection needles
burnt teaspoons
needle marks :
on arms
between toes


behind knees

OPIUM AND MORPHINE

"Opium" is the name of the coagulated juice of the opium poppy or otherwise known as the plant of the species Papaver somniferum L.

Papaver somniferum L

Papaver somniferum L. is an annual plant growing in many countries around the world. It favours a moderate climate. It has white to red flowers and round to elongated capsules with dark violet seeds.
After the plant has flowered, small cuts are made, and a white substance oozes out. As soon as the liquid becomes sticky and dark in colour, the substance is known as raw opium. Products such as Morphine, Cocaine and derivates such as Heroin, are made from Opium. Heroin is 10 times stronger than Morphine and Morphine is 10 times stronger than Opium.. The Opium poppy was already known by 3000BC and was known as the "Joyplant" (Hull Gil). Opium was imported from India to China and the tax attempts lead to the Opium War in 1839 – 1856 in China. China then started farming and harvesting their own poppies and they became one of the main suppliers of Opium. Morphine was synthesized from Opium by a German pharmacist in 1805 and Heroin was synthesized from Morphine in Germany during 1874. Morphine became popular during the American Civil War and a lot of soldiers were addicted to Morphine after the war.

Morphine and Heroin was originally introduced as a non-addictive substances, but Heroin was already abused worldwide in the early 1900's. The most Opium poppies can be found in the "Golden Triangle" - Burma, Thailand and Laos (South Asia) and the " Golden Crescent" - Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan (South West Asia). Countries such as Turkey, India, Colombia and Mexico are also producing Opium. Opium in the abovementioned countries is known as Golden crop, Chinese Gold and Black Gold. The poppy plant only grows in these specific areas because the soil contains a very specific alkaloid.

ILLICIT PRODUCTION OF MORPHINE AND HEROIN

Poppy Straw
Opium / Raw Opium
Crude Morphine
Codeine
Morphine
Heroin
Heroin Hydrochloride