Luxury Heroin Rehab Alternative Treatment Program

Heroin is an opiate. The opiate family is very large. Heroin can be smoked, snorted, ingested, or injected. The most common use of heroin is through an IV (intravenous), also known as “shooting up”.

Any opiate including heroin is a derivative of the poppy plant. There are only two varieties of poppy pods that produce opium. When a poppy is sliced the raw opium oozes out of the wound and is then collected producing raw opium powder. There are many countries that are active in the production of opium and heroin, the majority of which are found in Middle Eastern countries, Southeast Asia (Burma), South America (Columbia), South West Asia (Afghanistan), and Mexico.

When abusing heroin, you feel a short-lived feeling of euphoria and physical numbness, leading to a period of mental relaxation. There are other effects (including negative affects such as chronic vomiting being one) reported but they vary from person to person.

Heroin Effects and Withdrawal Symptoms

There are many short-term and long-term effects that come with heroin. Short-term effect include surge of euphoria, warm flushing of the skin, dry mouth, and heavy extremities. All these effects occur shortly after the first dose of heroin. After the first initial rush a person will then experience an alternately wakeful and then drowsy state. This is a form of the central nervous system going into a state of depression. After injecting oneself with heroin it normally takes about 5 to 8 minutes for someone to feel the rush of the drug. After smoking or sniffing the drug, it could take about 10 to 15 minutes to feel it. Long-term effects may include collapsed veins, infection of heart lining and valves, abscesses, cellulites, liver disease, and also various types of pneumonia. Another problem that occurs with the use of heroin is the possibility to catch infectious diseases such as HIV, Aids, and hepatitis from sharing needles. The most common effect is physical dependence (commonly referred to as “addiction”). With the physical habit in place a tolerance to the drug is built making the individual increase their dosage for the same “high.” In some cases this could be fatal, as the body and potency of the purchased drugs becomes less stable. In some cases of street heroin the additives that are mixed with the heroin might not completely dissolve causing untold grief within the substance abusers body. Blood vessels tend to clog which leads to possible infections of the lungs, liver, kidneys, or the brain. Overdose becomes a much greater risk as tolerance to the drug increases.

Abusing heroin causes a release of histamine in the body, same affect that occurs in allergies and some viral infections, causing a general itching and possibly a rash.

The withdrawal from heroin may cause uncontrollable diarrhea and vomiting and body aches. This is caused by the bodies natural awaked state after the depressive drug is removed. Heroin withdrawal can also cause extreme insomnia, paranoia, and depression. Without sleep withdrawing people can be utterly exhausted and frustrated suffering with a seeming inability to cope with day to day life. Most people who detox from heroin resume normal lives once they have been physically removed from the drugs for a week to ten days assuming there are no other physical complications.

Heroin Detox

Detoxification is generally recommended for those actively abusing heroin, and should not be a process that lasts more than one week.

History

In 1874, heroin was created by a British chemist, C. Alder Wright. The drug was synthesized for morphine as a pain killer that is still used today in trauma medicine as well as those people who are in chronic pain or have pain during terminal illnesses. Heroin was not used in medicine until the early 1900s. In 1853, the hypodermic needle was invented making it easier for people to use heroin in the most effective way, by injecting it into their bodies. In 1898, The Bayer Company introduced heroin as a substitute for morphine. Heroin and morphine were considered the leading pain-killing drugs at the time. Heroin then was starting to be used to cure morphine abuse, which just led to a worse addiction to heroin. Finally in 1924, The Heroin Act was created which made manufacture and possession of heroin illegal. However, the use and abuse of heroin has continued to this day, and the laws making it illegal have done little to slow the consumption in the US.

Many studies have been done on the usage of this drug but one study in particular which is called The 2005 Monitoring the Future study, which states that 1.5 percent of eighth, tenth, and twelfth graders have used heroin in the last year.