What is heroin?

Heroin is a drug that comes from the opium poppy. It is one of a group of very strong pain-killing drugs called narcotic analgesics or opioids. Some opioid drugs are opium, morphine and codeine.

There are other human-made opioid drugs, such as pethidine and methadone. These drugs can all be used legally, for medical reasons, but heroin is not legal. Heroin (also called ‘smack’, ‘skag’, ‘hammer’, ‘h’, or ‘horse’) is in the class of drugs called ‘depressants’, because it slows down the brain and the central nervous system.

How is heroin used?

Heroin usually comes in powder form. It can be different colours depending on how refined it is— white powder is usually more refined than brown or pink ‘rocks’, a lumpy powder. Heroin is usually injected, smoked or snorted.

It is absorbed into the blood and acts on the brain very quickly. People who sell heroin often mix or ‘cut’ the powder with other things that look the same, to make the drug go further. Some mixed-in substances may have unpleasant or harmful effects. It is difficult to tell what is actually in the drug.

Effects of heroin

What heroin does to you depends on:
• how much you take
• how pure the heroin is
• your height and weight
• your general health
• your past experience with heroin
• whether you use heroin on its own or with other drugs
• whether you use alone or with others, at home or at a party etc.

Immediate effects

The effects of heroin may last up to a few hours which can:
• make you feel really good
• make physical pain disappear
• make you feel nauseous or vomit
• make the pupils in your eyes get smaller (‘pinpoint pupils’)
• make your breathing become shallow
• cause constipation — when it is difficult to defecate (‘shit’)
• make you feel sleepy (‘on the nod’).

Long term effects of heroin
If you use heroin often for a long time you may:
• overdose (have too much heroin — the longer you use heroin, the more likely you are to
overdose)
• have long-term constipation
• get damaged veins from injecting a lot in the same site
• lose your appetite or get sick from lack of
healthy food
• have your menstrual period at the wrong time or not at all (women)