Over the course of this blog series on addictive drugs we have examined nine of the top 10 chemical substances with respect to use and addictive nature. Now we have come to the king of all addictive drugs – heroin. This is a drug that is so highly-addictive that a user can become addicted with just one use!
What is Heroin?
Heroin, also known as diamorphine or, especially in older literature, as morphine diacetate, is an opioid drug synthesized from morphine (is a legal pain reliever used in hospitals every day-very strong and also very addictive), which is a derivative of the opium poppy. The white crystalline form considered "pure heroin" is usually the hydrochloride salt.
Heroin is used as a recreational drug for the transcendent relaxation and intense euphoria it induces. Tolerance quickly develops, and users need more of the drug to achieve the same effects. Its popularity with recreational drug users, compared to morphine, reportedly stems from its perceived different effects. In particular, users report an intense rush, an acute transcendent state of euphoria.
It is Extremely Addictive!
Short-term addiction studies by the same researchers demonstrated that tolerance developed at a similar rate to both heroin and morphine. When compared to the opioids hydromorphone, fentanyl, oxycodone, and pethidine/meperidine, former addicts showed a strong preference for heroin and morphine, suggesting that heroin and morphine are particularly susceptible to abuse and addiction.
Morphine and heroin were also much more likely to produce euphoria and other positive subjective effects when compared to these other opioids.
An article in The Lancet compared the harm and addiction of 20 drugs, using a scale from 0 to 3 for physical addiction, psychological addiction, and pleasure to create a mean score for addiction. In this article, heroin was the #1 drug for addictive nature. It scored a 3.0 for both physical and psychological dependency, meaning it hits you from all angles. Again this drug is so addictive that just one use can cause addiction!
If there is a “poster-child” for addictive drugs to steer clear of – heroin is it!
Heroin should be avoided at all costs. There should never be any experimentation with this danger and highly-addictive chemical substance.