Exposing the Effects of Opium and Heroin: What is Heroin and Opium?

Exposing the Effects of Opium and Heroin. As a plant these drugs can be very appealing unto the eye but when processed for abuse they represent death and suffering

Before we can settle into the discussion of exposing the effects of opium and heroin, let us try to understand the proper definitions of the two. A lot has been said about heroin across the globe and one very important point is that heroin and generally all substance abuse has got nothing beneficial to human health. All that can be associated with them are poor health, suffering and even death to the extreme. So what really are these dangerous and devastating substances?

Heroin is derived from the morphine alkaloid found in opium and is roughly 2-3 times more potent. A highly addictive drug, heroin exhibits euphoric (“rush”), anxiolytic and analgesic central nervous system properties. Heroin is classified as a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 and as such has no acceptable medical use in the United States. Pure heroin is a white powder with a bitter taste. Most illicit heroin is sold as a white or brownish powder and is usually “cut” with other drugs or with substances such as sugar, starch, powdered milk, or quinine. It can also be cut with strychnine or other poisons. Because heroin abusers do not know the actual strength of the drug or its true contents, they are at risk of overdose or death. Another form of heroin known as “black tar” may be sticky, like roofing tar, or hard, like coal. Its color may vary from dark brown to black. Heroin has some funny street names include smack, H, skag, junk, brown sugar, horse, and black tar.

This is the simplest definition for heroin nonetheless as for opium which is also a highly addictive narcotic drug it is normally acquired in the dried latex form from the opium poppy seed pod. Customarily the pods which have not ripened are slit open and their sap seeps out and dries on the outer surface of the pod. The product realized will be yellow-brown latex, which is then scraped off of the pod; it is bitter in taste and contains varying amounts of alkaloids such as morphine, codeine, thebaine and papaverine.

And now back to exposing the effects of opium and heroin in both the short-term and the long-term, can actually be overwhelming in a number of different ways. The high or euphoria experienced in the short-term can overtake the senses, making the patient incoherent, unresponsive and unable to focus. In the long-term, the health effects can erode major organ systems and cause infections that can be very life threatening. From the first use, heroin overdose is a risk as well, and once physical addiction has set in, withdrawal symptoms are a constant threat explains doctor Dalal Akoury.

Exposing the Effects of Opium and Heroin: The Short Term Effects

The short-term effects of opium and heroin are generally the reason why people use opiates in the first place. This is when you experience the high or euphoric rush associated with the drug.

• Less than 10 seconds after intravenous injection, opiate users will feel a rush while an intramuscular injection provides a high in less than 10 minutes.
• For those who snort or smoke the drug, the euphoria takes up to 15 minutes.
• Other short-term effects of heroin and opium include dry mouth, a warm feeling, and heavy arms and legs.
• When heroin is cut with poisons or dangerous drugs like Fentanyl or when too much heroin is taken, a short-term effect of the drug can be overdose or death.

Exposing the Effects of Opium and Heroin: The Long Term Effects of Using Heroin and Opium

Generally when considering the long-term effects of opium and heroin, ordinarily this will depend upon the methods with which the drug is administered into the body like for instance:

When the drug (heroin) is administered through an injection the direct effects would be that the veins will collapse veins quickly followed by a huge risk of infections in the heart lining and valves.

Abscesses are a problem as well and those occur whether you are shooting up heroin intravenously or intramuscularly.

One very fundamental point that needs to be appreciated is that, it may not matter how you go about doing heroin, whether the mode of administration is through injection, smoking or snorting or otherwise, the problems with liver and kidney disease as well as liver failure, pneumonia, and issues with the lungs and the brain will always be there. In other words so long as there are traces of heroin in your body system, there are health conditions that you will have to endure. It is also very important to appreciate that those who have an addiction to heroin are more likely to develop co-occurring medical conditions too, this is so because their defenses are weakened and they are more vulnerable to infection and disease.

Exposing the Effects of Opium and Heroin: Opium and Heroin Addiction

According to the experts at AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center under the able leadership of doctor Dalal Akoury’s care, one of the most significant effects of heroin and opium use is their addictive nature and the fact that they are indiscriminative meaning that everyone is vulnerable and can be affected anywhere and anytime. With regular use and in a relatively short period of time (especially when needles are the chosen method of ingestion), heroin addiction develops quickly thereby weakening the body systems significantly. Opium use and addiction on the other hand is less common compared to heroin addiction. This point is supported by the fact that these days accessibility and cost of heroin is within rich for many. Experts are confirming that in each case, each of these drugs have certain common similarities, like for instance the frequency of abuse influences your desire for more and subsequently the more addictive they become on an individual. If this trend is allowed to thrive breaking the addiction will be very difficult and hence the more severe will be the experience with heroin withdrawal symptoms in the long run. Therefore to correct this situation, it is very necessary that you seek for help in good time from the experts at AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center. You can schedule for an appointment with doctor Dalal Akoury today for the most excellent and professional treatment and recovery program.

Exposing the Effects of Opium and Heroin: What is Heroin and Opium?