Heroin is one of the most dangerous and addictive illicit drugs being used and abused in the U.S. today.

Along with prescription opioid pain medications and the synthetic opioid fentanyl, it still remains a major factor in the ongoing “U.S. Opioid Epidemic.”

Sadly, many people begin using heroin with little idea about how highly addictive the drug is. Before long, they are actively and regularly using the drug, and rapidly become addicted – medically known as heroin or opioid use disorder (HUD/OUD).

Here, we look at heroin from several different angles:

• The drug’s addictive side effects
• How heroin affects the brain
• The physical and mental damage it can do
• Heroin’s role in the U.S. opioid epidemic
• What it’s like to be addicted to heroin, and
• How professional opioid use disorder (OUD) treatment is the only feasible way of successfully finding a long-term, sustainable recovery

Continue reading to learn more about heroin and its alarming potential for addiction.

What is Heroin?

Heroin is a powerful, rapidly-acting and highly addictive drug made from morphine, a natural substance taken from the seed pod of various opium poppy plants grown around the world.

It is classified as an opiate or opioid drug, and is medically described as an opioid analgesic, and a mu-opioid receptor agonist. It’s chemical name is diacetylmorphine.

It can be either a white (the purest form) or a brown powder, or a black, sticky substance known as “black tar heroin.”

Huge opium poppy fields for both the legal production of pharmaceutical morphine and the illegal manufacture of heroin can be found in:

• Southeast Asia

Thailand / Laos / Myanmar

• Southwest Asia

Afghanistan / Pakistan

• Central & South America

Mexico / Bolivia / Colombia

Heroin is illegally sold on U.S. streets by criminal drug dealers, or purchased online through the dark web. Obviously, buying heroin in these ways means users have little or no idea what the purchased substance contains, or its strength.

This leaves many users constantly at risk of a potentially fatal overdose.

WARNING #1: Heroin is often “cut” (mixed) with strychnine or other poisons

• Many of these various additives do not fully dissolve, which can clog the blood vessels that lead to the lungs, kidneys or brain, risking the infection and physical damage of vital organs.

WARNING #2: Fentanyl Contamination 

• The exceptionally potent synthetic opioid fentanyl or one of its similar chemical analogs is being mixed into virtually every other illicit drug available on the streets of America, including heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine, counterfeit prescription pills, and MDMA (ecstasy).

Heroin: Street Names

According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), it has the following street names:

• Big H
• Skag
• Thunder

• H
• Horse
• Hell Dust

• Junk
• Smack
• Nose drops

Heroin is classed as a Schedule I substance in the U.S. under the Controlled Substances Act, meaning that it has:

• “A high potential for abuse
• No currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States, and
• A lack of accepted safety for use under medical supervision.”

How is Heroin Used?

Heroin users either inject, sniff, snort, or smoke heroin, and some users mix their heroin with crack cocaine, a dangerous practice known as “speedballing.”

It affects the brain rapidly because it effectively binds to our natural opioid receptors [as described in detail below: How Does Heroin Affect the Brain?].

This results in a flood of the brain’s natural “feel-good” chemical dopamine into the brain’s “reward center.”

Heroin users experience an intense and euphoric high when using the drug, feeling both elated and completely relaxed, with no pain.

Can You Get Addicted to Heroin After One Use?

Although heroin is extremely potent, highly addictive and produces this intense and powerful feeling of euphoria, it is very doubtful that anyone who uses it for the very first time will become instantly addicted or “hooked” on the drug.

However, heroin can leave first-time users with a psychological craving to try the drug again. With repeated use, an actual addiction to heroin or the development of opioid use disorder (OUD) will normally take several weeks to occur.

What Causes Opioid Addiction & Why is it So Tough to Combat?

TED-Ed with Mike Davis

The full transcription of this TED-Ed video is available here.

In the 1980s and 90s, pharmaceutical companies began to market opioid painkillers aggressively, while actively downplaying their addictive potential. The number of prescriptions skyrocketed, and so did cases of addiction, beginning a crisis that continues today.

What makes opioids so addictive?

Mike Davis explains what we can do to reverse the skyrocketing rates of addiction and overdose.

Heroin: Side Effects

Whether it’s because of a recreational drug user’s curiosity, peer pressure, opioid pain prescriptions no longer being fillable, mental health disorders, behavioral issues, or something else entirely, the euphoric experience of a user’s first hit of heroin stays with them, possibly leading to further use, and then, ultimately, addiction.

So what are the actual side effects of heroin use and how does it affect the brain so dramatically?

Typically, heroin users experience:

• Intense and euphoric “high”
• Decrease in pain levels
• Feelings of elation, happiness and relaxation.
• Excessive fatigue
• Changes in their mental perceptions

How Does Heroin Affect the Brain?

Heroin is described as a mu-opioid receptor agonist. This means it effectively and rapidly binds to the natural opioid receptors in the brain, and activates them.

Normally, our own natural neurotransmitters bind to these receptors in order to control pain, regulate hormones, and keep us feeling good.

However, when the mu-opioid receptors are activated by a powerful drug like heroin, a huge amount of dopamine is released.
It is this rapid rush of dopamine that creates the feeling of intense euphoria felt by heroin users.

The U.S. Opioid Epidemic

The ongoing national opioid epidemic continues to take the lives of Americans at a frightening rate – around 190 opioid-related deaths per day, and the rate continues to worsen.

With the growing use of synthetic opioids, like fentanyl (a drug 50 times stronger than morphine), it will be years before an end to the crisis is in sight.

The opioid epidemic was originally caused by the actions of the U.S. pharmaceutical industry, who assured family physicians across the nation that new opioid medications for treating pain were safe to prescribe, and, importantly, not addictive.

As a result, the medical community – everyone’s tried and trusted family doctor – began prescribing them to patients at insanely high rates.

Before long, it became clear that these medications could indeed be highly addictive, and opioid overdose rates began to increase.

Opioid Epidemic: The Medical Industry Created a Public Health Crisis

Dr. Chris Johnson, MD | TEDx Talks

As an emergency room physician, Dr. Chris Johnson has worked on the front lines of the opioid epidemic. He argues that the epidemic is not an accident, and that the medical industry and its system of incentives have, in fact, created this crisis at the expense of effective, compassionate medicine driven by science.

He is a nationally recognized expert on the opioid epidemic, and has spoken throughout the country on this topic to medical and non-medical audiences alike, and brings an urgent message on the need to reform a medical industry that has prioritized business interests over patient safety.

“This is the highest number of overdose deaths ever recorded in a 12-month period. We are seeing an increase in drug consumption, difficulty in accessing life-saving treatments for substance use disorders, and a tragic rise in overdose deaths.

– Dr. Nora Volkow, Director, National Institute on Drug Abuse

Heroin: Short & Long Term Effects

The longer a person uses and abuses heroin is directly linked to the amount of mental and physical damage they can potentially inflict upon their health and wellbeing.

Apart from the obvious euphoric high, the short-term and, in particular, the long-term effects of heroin abuse can be severe, causing extensive and permanent damage to vital organs, including the brain, and can lead to a drastically reduced life expectancy.

Additionally, with the illicit heroin supply now becoming more and more contaminated with the synthetic opioid fentanyl and similar substances, the greater is the likelihood of a potentially fatal heroin overdose.

Short-Term Effects of Heroin Use

• Euphoric high (3-5 hours)
• Decrease in pupil size
• Decreased heart rate
• Reduced respiration*
• Diminished cognition

• Flushed skin
• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Runny nose
• Extreme fatigue

• Dry mouth
• Heavy limbs
• Appetite loss
• Severe itching
• Drowsiness

*Important: Reduced respiration (or slow breathing rate) is of particular concern. Sometimes this can lead to the heroin user falling into a coma, or even suffering irreparable brain damage.

Long-Term Effects of Heroin Use

The long-term use and abuse of heroin impacts the entire physical body, causing severe and long-standing conditions related to the vital organs.

This includes the human brain and a number of its important functions, where the damage done by heroin is often irreversible.

Heroin & The Brain

Repeated heroin use and abuse changes both the physical structure and the physiology of the brain, creating long-term imbalances in neuronal and hormonal systems that are difficult to reverse.

These types of brain damage and functional impairment can include:

• Structural changes to the brain’s reward center
• Decreased control over the respiratory system, resulting in shallow, slow or irregular breathing
• Low intake of oxygen, leading to reduced function in the vital organs and possibly organ damage, including the brain itself
• Reduction in white matter, which can affect decision-making, the regulation of behavior, and normal and healthy responses to stressful situations
• Dementia-like syndrome, similar to Alzheimer’s disease
• Severe cognitive impairment 

Heroin, particularly over an extended period, will produce profound degrees of tolerance and physical dependence:

• Tolerance results in more and more of the drug being required by the user to achieve the same effects. 
• Physical dependence is when the body adapts to the constant presence of the drug. Severe and rapid withdrawal symptoms occur if the heroin use is abruptly reduced or stopped entirely.

Heroin & The Body

In addition to the various forms of damage to the brain, the long-term effects of heroin use, including the sharing of unsterilized needles and other drug paraphernalia, can cause the following bodily damage:

• Liver disease
• Kidney disease
• Heart infections
• Miscarriage
• Rheumatological issues

• Pulmonary infections
• Depression
• Arthritis
• Diminished sex drive
• Skin abscesses and infections

• Collapsed veins
• Chronic constipation
• Infertility (in women)
• HIV / Hepatitis
• Other blood-borne viruses

Heroin: Use or Abuse, Addiction & Overdose Risks

A recreational heroin user who can literally take the drug or leave it, and has no clear signs of a dependence on the drug either, is one of the fortunate ones.

However, for many others, a hit or two of heroin a day quickly becomes a regular necessity to satisfy their dependence. This is an example of drug abuse and drug dependence, needing a regular “fix” to simply feel normal.

It can get worse, and often does. Without treatment, the next stop is heroin addiction – heroin use disorder.

Being addicted to heroin consumes absolutely everything else in your life. It is not just your main focus – it’s your only focus.

The addiction is further strengthened by the rapid onset of withdrawal symptoms if a heroin fix doesn’t arrive on time.

At this point, there is the distinct possibility the brain is suffering irreversible damage, and the hormonal and neural systems have become so unbalanced it will take years of living heroin-free to repair the damage.

Additionally, normal dopamine production is a thing of the past – there is no way that the brain in its current state can produce enough of the organ’s “happy chemical” so the addict feels reasonably normal, let alone the feeling of being happy.

Physical Signs of Heroin Use & Abuse

There are several signs that indicate that a person has been using heroin on a regular basis in the short-term. They are easy to spot when people know what to look for, and they can include:

• Itchiness
• Nausea / Vomiting

• Nervous / Anxious
• Feeling chilly

• Poor sleep patterns
• Return of bodily pain

Physical, Psychological & Social Signs of Heroin Addiction

Physical Signs:

• Needle track marks (on the arms and elsewhere)
• Infections at injection sites
• Experiencing withdrawal symptoms when not using
• Poor
  Speech
• Shrunken
  Pupils
• Shallow
  Breathing
• Poor sleep
  Pattern / Insomnia
• Fatigue

Psychological Signs:

• Continuing heroin use despite knowing the clear health risks
• Unable to stop using on their own
• Risky behavior when trying to access a new heroin supply
• Obsession with heroin
• Using heroin as “self-medication”
• Decreased cognition and decision-making
• Agitation and irritability
• Memory loss

Social Signs:

• Isolated from loved ones, family and non-using friends
• Lack of self-care, eg. untidy appearance
• Socializing with other heroin users (known or unknown)
• Struggling with finances / legal issues
• No activity with normal pastimes
• Increased tolerance to heroin
• Being deceptive, eg. stealing and lying
• Employment issues

The High Risk of Heroin Overdose

Opioids were the main catalysts behind the record number of fatal drug overdoses seen during 2020, and, as we stated previously, the risk of overdose has significantly increased with contamination of the normal illegal drug supply by the synthetic opioid fentanyl.

Heroin Overdose Statistics

According to historical heroin overdose data from the NIDA:

• In 1999, the number of heroin overdoses was considered extremely low in the U.S.
• By around 2013, the issue had worsened and it was estimated 10,000 people in total had died from a heroin overdose
• This figure continued to increase annually, reaching 15,000 in 2016
• A significant number of these fatal overdoses were a result of poly drug use (mixing two or more drugs to magnify their effects)
• In 2019, indicating a stabilization of the issue, there were just over 14,000 fatal heroin overdoses

How Can I Identify a Heroin Overdose?

A heroin overdose can either occur rapidly – within 10 minutes – or slowly – perhaps 3 hours after the last use, and anywhere in between, time-wise.

However, it is rare for someone to die quickly if they have overdosed on heroin, so there is time for them to be saved if prompt action is taken.

If you suspect someone has overdosed on heroin (or another opioid or powerful drug), call 911 immediately. Additionally, if the person is in possession of the opioid overdose reversal medication, naloxone (described below), immediately use it as directed.

Staying with the person is now paramount, as the emergency services need to be advised of the use of naloxone.

The main signs of a heroin overdose can include:

• Vomiting
• Muscles limp and unresponsive
• Respiratory depression

• Skin coloration
• Purplish lips and fingernails
• Loss of consciousness

• Small pupils
• Inability to speak / incoherent speech
• Irregular heart rate

Heroin: Detox, Treatment & Recovery

 Anyone who has been clinically diagnosed with a heroin / opioid use disorder (HUD/OUD – heroin addiction), or is experiencing severe issues controlling its use or with negative consequences either physically, mentally, socially or economically should seek professional treatment

Heroin Detox: Withdrawal Symptoms

The safest way to “detox” (the process of detoxification) from heroin is with a professional, medically supervised detox.

Attempting to detox from heroin solely on your own (known as going “cold turkey”) can be exceptionally dangerous as the withdrawal symptoms can be severe, leading to a high risk of medical issues, relapse and, later, overdose.

Remember, a detox will only help a person become heroin-free, without medical risks – and ready for drug rehab. It does nothing to treat the causes of the addiction. The psychological addiction to heroin has to be professionally treated, along with any mental health issues, behavioral problems, or experiences of trauma.

Depending on the severity of the heroin addiction, withdrawal symptoms usually begin within 12 hours of an individual’s last dose of the drug. These can last as long as several weeks, and it is possible to experience them for several months afterwards.

Types of Heroin Detox Programs

People addicted to heroin are usually recommended for Medication-Assisted Treatment or MAT, which involves the use of specific FDA-approved medications for treating opioid addiction.
These recommended medications include:

• Buprenorphine
• Methadone
• Suboxone
• Naltrexone
• Subutex

The detoxification process normally takes from 7-10 days, but it can take 14 days.

Heroin Addiction Rehab

Heroin use disorder treatment (often known as heroin addiction rehab) provides the next step in the correct treatment of the newly-detoxed individual. Different types of rehab exist, depending on a patient’s medical needs and their individual circumstances.
These rehab centers provide a range of evidence-based treatment programs, which include:

• One-to-One Counseling Therapy
• Specific Therapies, such as Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CDT)
• Group Support, and
• Family Therapy

According to the NIDA, around half of people who enter into substance abuse treatment have co-occurring disorder (also known as dual diagnosis), meaning they also have a mental health issue that is driving their addictive behavior.
Co-occurring disorders must be treated simultaneously with the substance addiction in order for people to recover long-term. If these conditions are not treated together, one may result in the return of the other.

Types of Drug Rehab Treatment Programs

There are several types of drug rehab treatment programs available, which include:

• Inpatient (residential) Programs (IP)
• Partial Hospitalization Programs (PHP)
• Intensive Outpatient Programs (IOP)
• Traditional Outpatient Programs (OP)

Modern Recovery Provides Heroin Addiction Treatment

At Modern Recovery, we understand how hard it is to recover from drug addiction, and our intensive outpatient program (IOP) is designed to speak to the unique needs of each client we work with.
Personalized treatment plans are provided, as we know everyone has unique and specific needs during recovery.
Our holistic approach to treatment includes several types of therapy, as well as therapeutic activities and nutritional counseling.
In addition, we can provide Sober Living homes for those who are out-of-state or living in an unsupportive environment.

Learn More about Recovery from Heroin Addiction: Get Help Today

Do you have questions about heroin addiction or getting the right professional treatment? If so, we are always here to help. Please contact us today.

External Sources:

• National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Heroin Drug Facts. June, 2021. Available at DrugAbuse.gov.
• Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). Drug Fact Sheet: Heroin. June, 2020. Available at DEA.gov.
• U.S. National Library of Medicine: “Dopamine.” August, 2021. Available at NLM.NIH.gov.
• Binghamton University, New York. Civil War on drugs: Doctoral candidate explores the nation’s first opioid epidemic. August, 2021. Available at Binghamton.edu–
• U.S. National Library of Medicine: “Heroin.” August, 2021. Available at NLM.NIH.gov.
• U.S. National Library of Medicine: “Mu Opioid Receptor.” 2004. Available at NLM.NIH.gov.
• National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Opioid Overdose Crisis. March, 2021. Available at DrugAbuse.gov.
• National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Fentanyl. June, 2021. Available at DrugAbuse.gov.
• National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Misuse of Prescription Drugs Research Report: What classes of prescription drugs are commonly misused? June, 2020. Available at DrugAbuse.gov.
• U.S. Department of Health & Human Services: HHS Acting Secretary Declares Public Health Emergency to Address National Opioid Crisis. October, 2017. Available at HHS.gov [Archived Content].
• National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Overdose Death Rates. January, 2021. Available at DrugAbuse.gov.
• U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC): Provisional Drug Overdose Death Counts” System. August, 2021. Available at CDC.gov.
• Alzheimer’s Association. What is Alzheimer’s? 2021. Available at ALZ.org.
• HIV.gov. Hepatitis B & C. April, 2020. Available at HIV.gov.
• Council of Residency Directors in Emergency Medicine (CORD). Good Samaritan Laws. 2021. Available at CORDEM.org.
• Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (SAMHSA). Opioid Overdose Prevention Toolkit. 2018. Available at SAMHSA.gov.
• Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (SAMHSA). Medication-Assisted Treatment. 2021. Available at SAMHSA.gov.
• National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Comorbidity: Substance Use & Other Mental Disorders. June, 2021. Available at DrugAbuse.gov.
• U.S. National Library of Medicine: “Definition of Partial Hospitalization.” August, 2021. Available at NLM.NIH.gov.