Heroin and Its Effects
...heir families and loved ones, etc. But yet, they are so concentrated on what they need, they see nothing wrong with what they are doing. As the addiction progresses, they no longer even try to hide it. They start leaving evidence all over. Many of them want help and want to kick the addiction but it’s just too hard. Heroin can be put in the system of a person in many different ways: smoking, snorting, and intravenously. IV drug use can lead to more than just an addiction. It can lead to HIV and Hepatitis C by sharing needles with someone who is affected. When injected, there is a feeling of pleasure. Heroin makes the person feel no pain. Taken orally, effects are felt more gradually (Pritchard). When heroin is taken, the user feels euphoric and extremely good (Pritchard). He feels a “rush” of pleasure. This is why it is highly addictive; but when the person comes down off the drug, he can feel drowsy and suffer from nausea (Pritchard). Some symptoms of the short-term effects of heroin use are restlessness, sweating, nausea, vomiting, dry mouth and increased urination. Tolerance of the drug means that over time and with regular use, a user needs more and more of a drug to get the same effect (Pritchard). Tolerance also increases the risk of dangerous or fatal overdose (Pritchard). If an addict stops doing the drug for a period of time and then starts again, taking the same amount they were use to taking could result in an overdose because his/her tolerance level has decreased for that drug. I...