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Risks of Heroin

The risks of heroin are great, even when you discount the effect that the drug itself can have on a person - coma, respiratory arrest, death - owing to the methods in which the drug is taken as well as the contaminants present in whatever the heroin is cut with. Government organisations across the world seek to help addicts by offering them advice on how to make their heroin addiction as safe as possible, and many websites, leaflets and programs are available through many countries to help addicts, outside of rehabilitation clinics. The methods prescribed are not necessarily to get a user off of the drug, but they are simply suggested to the habitual user in case they find it too difficult to wean themselves off the drug - in the opinion of these organisations, the more control and advice they can offer in a situation, the safer for the addict it will be.

One major risk to heroin users comes from the use of intravenous needles - unsterilized needles are common and diseases such as hepatitis and HIV can be spread through the use of unclean injection materials. To help combat this, many needle clinics have been set up through countries in the world, offering a place where addicts can hand in their old, used needles in exchange for new, clean, sterile injectors - it isn't a method likely to get them off heroin, but it helps to make sure the user is as safe as they can be in their addiction.

Another way in which heroin users risk harm is through the use of the street drug - in its purest, uncut form heroin is a surprisingly harmless drug. When cut with the numerous additives and contaminants as a part of the cutting or manufacturing process the drug becomes more dangerous, with the toxicity and threat to health increasing a great deal.

The greatest risk to a heroin addict, however, is that of an overdose. With repeated use of the drug, a dependency is built up - this leads to a tolerance and soon it takes larger amounts of heroin to achieve a genuine high. It soon gets to a point where a dangerous amount of the drug is being ingested, and it only takes a slight miscalculation for the user to end up dead.