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Heroin Abuse in the UK

Heroin – or junk, smack, dope, black tar and shit, amongst others – is a highly addictive drug synthesised from morphine, which initially comes from the opium poppy. Commonly administered through intravenous injection, heroin can also be snorted or smoked, though addicts tend to prefer injection as it offers the fastest route to a high. The drug enters the bloodstream and soon brings on an intense feeling of euphoria in the user, though this takes longer when heroin is administered orally or nasally. A high can last many hours and is followed by withdrawal symptoms, usually shivering, pain and general skittishness – heavy users suffer from worsening of this syndrome, and the need to stave off the pain is a heavy factor in users becoming addicts. The other main factor comes with regular usage building up a tolerance, meaning more and more heroin is necessary for a high.

Heroin users suffer from a vast amount of side effects, from less serious ones like itching and drowsiness up to comas and even death, and this isn’t even taking into account the risks attributed to things like dirty needles – a big cause of HIV.

Many addicts die from overdoses or from using bad junk, when the goods have been cut with any number of other ingredients. The illegality of heroin in many countries makes it hard to regulate the quality of the drug on the streets, meaning no two packages are likely to be the same and heroin cut with anything from baking soda to poisonous chemicals isn’t out of the question. Initially, at least, most heroin tends to come out of a few regions in the world; Pakistan, Afghanistan, Mexico, Thailand and Colombia are amongst the biggest exporters of the drug, and trafficking tends to take the goods through many countries around the world before it finally reaches its destination. The ‘war on drugs’ has been trying to stop these packages from completing their journey for many years, and the penalties for drug smuggling are incredibly harsh, with a lot of South East Asian countries invoking the death penalty.

In the United Kingdom heroin is a Class A drug and is restricted, however the drug is available for medicinal purposes in a few cases and can sometimes be prescribed by a doctor. The drug can only be prescribed in certain cases, usually when the patient is suffering from chronic pain, and all usage must be supervised by a medical professional.