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Heroin

 

Non-intravenous heroin doesn't give nearly as intense a rush and so is thought to be less addicting. People who snort heroin can often do so on and off for long periods of time without becoming strongly addicted. This occasional use of heroin is called "chipping" and it seems that some lucky people can remain successful chippers over months or even years. Unfortunately, a high percentage of chippers become addicts. Most junkies begin as chippers with no thought that they would ever become addicts (Drug Free, 1996). With the preferred method of heroin use being injection, you will generally see certain types of paraphernalia. .
             This paraphernalia will include, but is not limited to, spoons with residue in the spoon along with a piece of cotton, the bottom side of the spoon having burn marks and the handle being bent downward somewhat. Syringes are also included in this paraphernalia along with soda bottle caps, which have the same use as the spoons. The spoons or caps are used to dilute and liquefy the heroin. The cotton in the spoon is for filtering the heroin as it is drawn into the syringe.
             To put a perspective on heroin, morphine is one of the strongest legal painkillers known and heroin is five times stronger. Heroin tends to relax the user. An immediate rush usually will occur and sometimes be accompanied by side effects such as restlessness, nausea and vomiting. A user of heroin may go on the "nod". This is best described as going back and forth from feeling alert to drowsy. Due to the use of needles with this drug, infections and abscesses on the body are common. Heroin users will normally have injuries that have been left unattended due to the drug's pain killing abilities. Addiction usually leads to malnutrition and weight loss. A person addicted to heroin may look like they are in a daze, almost to the point of sleep, have a dry mouth, low raspy voice, droopy eyelids, profuse itching, and fresh puncture marks or sores covering their body (Mckim, 1996).


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