All ways of taking heroin can lead to addiction. Smoking and sniffing heroin do not produce a "rush" as quickly or as intensely as intravenous injection, but the heroin still ends up in the brain, where addiction and tolerance build up.

The body has its own pain-killing opiates called endorphins which are released in times of physical injury. Heroin is converted by the brain into morphine which then binds of the endorphin receptors all over the body, creating a powerful and pleasurable warm 'cotton wool' effect. See similar questions...

No. Heroin's 'incredible' addictiveness has been much overplayed, backed up by the tragic spectres of long term addicts, physcially wasted by their habits. Nevertheless, like alcohol, nicotine, amphetamines and cocaine, heroin is a highly addictive drug with a seductive physical and psychological effect. It's ability to smother and cushion a user from their lives often draws the user into a psychological addiction, much before the physical compulsion starts. See similar questions...

We ask you to come in for a previsit, fill out paperwork and receive an explanation of the requirements to be part of the Buprenorphine Sublingual Medication Program. Although acute detoxification is completed within 10 days, the general length of the shortest complete detoxification program is usually 6 weeks. The 6-week program costs run between $1250.00 complete with office visits and prescribed medications. See similar questions...

Heroin is an opiod agonist. It's is a semi-synthetic drug which is derived from opium, and has the chemical formula C21H23NO3. Opium is produced by the opium poppy - papaver somniferum. The group of opiod agonists includes many other drugs, one is morphine, the direct derivative of opium. See similar questions...

Pure heroin is usually white. Street heroin is usually brown from impurities and adulterants. However there is no way to guage heroin purity just from looking at it. See similar questions...

The brown heroin commonly seen in the UK doesn't dissolve very easily and so is difficult to inject intravenously. Users have to use acids, usually citric acid from lemons, to do so. See similar questions...

Most heroin in the UK comes from poppies grown in Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, and Turkey. In the US, heroin comes from Mexico, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, and the notorious Golden Triangle area of Southeast Asia (Burma, Thailand, Laos). See similar questions...

The majority of treatment programs in the United States utilize the 12 steps derived from the Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous programs as their foundation. In the past, the 12 step philosophy was combined with inpatient treatment in a hospital setting for a period of at least 28 days. Addicts would attend AA or NA meetings while receiving group therapy. See similar questions...

Heroin is a more refined form of morphine, and requires a smaller dose for the same effect. Many opiates may be very efficient painkillers, with few euphoric effects, and the vice versa applies in a couple of examples. Heroin has very effective abilities in both the euphoric and analgesic areas. This essentially means that it creates an intense feeling of well being and relief from stresses and it relieves physical pains. See similar questions...

Heroin slows down breathing, and can stop it altogether. Most heroin overdoses occur when heroin is combined with other drugs with a depressant effect, particularly alcohol and sleeping pills like Valium or Normison. While overdoses caused by a single high IV dose of pure heroin may cause immediate death, many overdose victims do not fall into an immediate coma as is often the portrayal of OD in popular culture. See similar questions...

If a user ceases consumption of opiates after developing dependence, they will experience withdrawal. Physical withdrawal from heroin peaks on the 3rd or 4th day, and is pretty much over by the 8th day. Level of severity and types of withdrawal symptoms experienced can be very individual. A user consuming more each day will tend to have more severe symptoms than a friend using less, but gender, age, state of physical and mental health, and many other thing can affect this. See similar questions...

Although we are refused prescription heroin, users are offered drugs like methadone and buprenorphine, supposedly to "treat" your dependence. These drugs simply maintain your habit, and withdrawal will be experienced if you stop using them straightaway, same as with heroin. They can be very important, providing people with a way of functioning without heroin, but prescription diacetylmorphine could meet this role just as well. Naltrexone is a drug which blocks the effects of opiates. See similar questions...

Purity varies, fluctuating on a local basis depending on availability (dealers reduce purity when they don't have as much) but generally, yes, heroin is purer now than it has ever been. Part of this is because former cocaine cartels are now branching out into heroin as well, flooding the market. Higher purity also makes snorting and inhaling an alternative to injecting without too much compromising of the intensity of the high. See similar questions...