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Heroin Usage in the UK

There are a great deal of ways in which heroin can be taken, and each method affects how quickly the user feels the 'rush', the intensity of the high and how long it takes to come down from the effects. Through history opium poppies were smoked or otherwise consumed to varying degrees of effectiveness, but it wasn’t until science and mass production got a hold of heroin that the true potential of the drug came to light - science both creating heroin and educating the public on it, and the drug itself getting into the populace to be experimented with in the most practical of senses.

The most common way in which heroin is taken in via intravenous injection - a hit of the drug is simply injected into a vein for the effect to take hold. This method proves most common for a number of reasons - it isn’t the fastest method to get a hit, but it does tend to be the most intense and last the longest, compared to other methods. Injection of heroin is also the most dangerous method of taking the drug, with the possibility of overdose far higher than with other methods, and the risks attributed to using needles well documented - HIV, AIDS and other diseases are not uncommon with heroin addicts.

Another way heroin is taken is by smoking it: the drug is laid out on tin foil, which is then heated and the vapour it produces inhaled - this method is popularly referred to as 'chasing the dragon', owing to how the user has to follow the vapour -resembling a dragon's tail - as the foil is heated.

The third, and least popular method of taking heroin is by snorting it. This method proves to be the least popular because of the speed at which a high is achieved - it can take up to 20 minutes for high to be felt, and many heroin addicts simply don't want to wait that long for the euphoria to set in - hence they stick to smoking and injecting. Nevertheless, there are countless addicts out there that will still snort heroin.