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10 Alarming Facts About Heroin

This addictive opioid has pinching effects worldwide. From behavioral changes, mental health effects, financial deterioration, and even death. In 2016, the United States alone experienced over 15000 deaths linked to Heroin overdose.

Moreover, the effects of Heroin are felt by both users and the entire society. Thus it is a menace that requires the effort of everyone to curb it.

Here are 10 Disturbing Truths About Heroin.

1. Heroin is very addictive

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Opioids (opium-like substances) have a high risk of resulting in addiction if not properly administered. The time and quantity that leads to addiction vary from each individual.

The use of opioids triggers the release of endorphins which is the brain’s feel-good neurotransmitters. This increases your feelings of pleasure and suppresses your pain. So users develop a temporary powerful sense of well-being.

Additionally, when the dose wears off, the user may feel the urge to stimulate the feel-good state which becomes the start of an addiction. Hence prolonged use of opioids makes the body develop tolerance.

The tolerance state makes the body release less feel-good feelings for the same amount of dose. Thus users in this tolerance stage increase their dosage and addiction sets in with each increased dosage.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) reports heroin is the fastest-acting and most abused opioid. This makes it one of the most abused opioids in the world.

2. Heroin users number over 9 million in the world

The estimated number of opioid users is 13.5 million people in the world.  Out of this number, about 9.2 million are heroin users.

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3. Heroin usage is beginning as early as 12 years

According to the 2021 National Survey on Drug Use and Health by NIDA (National Institute on Drug Abuse), it showed that students in the U.S. were already into heroin usage.

NIDA surveyed people from age 12 and above and the findings revealed that an estimated 1.1 million people (0.4%) confessed to having used heroin within the past 12 months.

What’s more, the 2022 Monitoring the Future Survey by NIDA accounted for 0.3% of 8th graders, 0.2% of 10th graders, and 0.3% of 12th graders. The students admitted to having used heroin within the past 12 months.

4. Many heroin users suffer from a heroin disorder

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NIDA’s 2021 National Survey on Drug Use and Health among people aged 12 or older showed that many of the heroine users suffered from a heroine disorder.

Furthermore, as per the report, 1.1 million people (0.4%) agreed to have used heroin within the past 12 months. Yet about 1.0 million of them admitted to having a heroine disorder within the same period of usage.

5. Heroin overdose contributes to thousands of deaths each year

National Institute on Drug Abuse reported the highest number of heroin overdose deaths in 2016. The number rose from 1,960 in 1999 to 15,469 in 2016 in the U.S.

Though there has been a declining trend in these death cases since 2016, overdose is still claiming thousands of lives every year. For instance, in 2020 NIDA reported 13,165 deaths in the U.S. and 9,173 in 2021.

6. Heroin usage can cause severe health problems

The abuse of heroin can lead to heart and lung complications. It can also cause kidney and liver challenges. The skin can also be affected because severe itching is one of the side effects of heroin usage.

7. Withdrawal symptoms make it difficult to quit the drug

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The withdrawal symptoms of heroin vary based on different factors. Such as frequency of use, the dose of heroin used, and duration of heroin usage. For example, acute (short-term) heroin withdrawal can last from 3 to 10 days.

To add on, severe addiction can lead to long-term withdrawal symptoms lasting days, weeks, or months. For most long-term withdrawal symptoms, users go through several stages. Hence when it goes on for a long time, users may find it painful to bear. Hence a relapse which makes quitting the drug a challenge.

8. Heroin increases the chances of contracting blood-borne diseases

Advanced heroin addiction leads to the administering of the drug through injection. Thus sharing of syringes and needles puts the users at a high risk of contracting infections like HIV, hepatitis B (HBV), and hepatitis C virus (HCV).

Besides sharing needles, the risk of infections extends to the sharing of any equipment used to prepare and inject the drugs. Hence People Who Inject Drugs(PWID) are at both risks.

9. Prolonged use of heroin can damage the brain

The brain’s cognitive processes are damaged by the long-term use of heroin. So the functions that support learning, memory, and reasoning are tampered with by heroin overdose.

It happens so because the brain’s neural processes that underlie addiction overlap to a great length with those that support these cognitive functions. In the end, heroin users may suffer memory loss and experience impaired cognitive functionality.

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10. Heroin addiction can lead to financial irresponsibility

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Addicted heroin users can end up in financial ruin due to uncontrollable buying of the drug. The expenses become straining and unbearable for them. Since heroin is illegal in most countries, users suffer punishment once caught including job loss or imprisonment.

Over and above that, with their cognitive ability tampered with, their relationships with family, friends, and colleagues are affected. Subsequently, they distance themselves from such relationships.

11. Heroin addiction triggers other mental health conditions

Heroin users can experience low motivation, anxiety, depression, and irritability both when intoxicated or in withdrawal. They may also suffer difficulty with sleeping too much or too little as well as behavioral changes.

In some cases, heroin addiction can cause bipolar disorder. If a user had preexisting mental health conditions, once addicted these illnesses escalate to a higher level.

Here are quick Alarming Facts About Heroin.

12. Heroin usage can lead to crime life for users.

13. High dependency on heroin can result in poverty.

14. Heroin addicts suffer social isolation and thus lack relevant support systems.

15. Babies born by mothers that use heroin during pregnancy experience Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS). It’s a set of conditions experienced by a baby due to withdrawal from drugs they had exposure to while in the womb.