Synthesized from morphine, heroin is an illegal drug and a medical pain-killer. Discovered in 1874 by C. R. Alder Wright, a derivative of the opium, heroin is a dangerous substance with high addictive potential. There is a huge traffic of heroin, Afghanistan producing 87% of the world’s heroin.

On the street is known as “H”, “smack”, “junk”, “horse”, etc. Usually it looks like a white or brown powder, (“black tar” heroin is dark and sticky), and can be injected, smoked, or snorted. It is one of the most-used, most-rapidly acting, and most addictive of the opiate family, which includes opium, morphine, and codeine.

All opiates are derived from opium, a naturally occurring juice extracted from the seed pod of certain varieties of poppy (Papaver somniferum and Papaver setigerum). Heroin or “diacetylmorphine” is a semi-synthetic derivative of morphine. It’s relatively cheap and many smoke it to ease comedown from Ecstasy, speed or coke.

Pure heroin is a white powder with a bitter taste. Street heroin comes in granule, powder, solution or pill forms and varies in color from white to dark brown, thanks to additives or impurities left from the manufacturing process. True heroin is a hydrochloride salt, soluble in water. The brown heroin is diamorphine base, a product intended mainly for smoking, and is not soluble in water.

Most regular users inject either intravenously (into a vein) or intra-muscularly (into a muscle, usually the shoulder) after heating heroin powder in a little water. The brown heroin must be dissolved in acid, usually citric acid from lemons.

However, an increasing number of people choose to smoke or snort lines of heroin, rather than inject. When smoked, heroin is heated on foil and the vapor inhaled through a tube or rolled-up bank note. This is known as “chasing the dragon.”

We strongly recommend to everyone reading this article to stay out of heroin’s use, however, if you or someone close to you have problems with heroin  addiction, we suggest you to visit Drug Rehab in Canada.