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Heroin
Street terms for
heroin: smack, thunder, hell dust, big H, nose drops1
What does heroin
look like?
- Pure heroin is
a white powder with a bitter taste.
- Most illicit heroin
varies in color from white to dark brown.
- "Black tar"
heroin is sticky like roofing tar or hard like coal, and its color may
vary from dark brown to black.
How is heroin used?
- Injecting
- Smoking
- Snorting
Who uses heroin?
- In the United
States in 1999 there were 104,000 new heroin users.
- In 2000, approximately
1.2% of the population reported heroin use at least once in their lifetime.2
How does heroin get
to the United States?
- The U.S. heroin
market is supplied entirely from foreign sources of opium.
- Production occurs
in South America, Mexico, Southeast Asia, and Southwest Asia.3
How much does heroin
cost?
- Nationwide, in
2000, South American heroin ranged from $50,000 to $200,000 per kilogram.
Southeast and Southwest Asian heroin ranged in price from $40,000 to
$190,000 per kilogram. Wholesale-level prices for Mexican heroin were
the lowest of any type, ranging from $13,200 to $175,000 per kilogram.
The wide range in kilogram prices reflects variables such as buyer/seller
relationships, quantities purchased, purchase frequencies, purity, and
transportation costs.4
What are some consequences
of heroin use?
- One of the most
significant effects of heroin use is addiction. Once tolerance happens,
higher does become necessary to achieve the desired effect, and physical
dependence develops.5
- Chronic use may
cause collapsed veins, infection of heart lining and valves, abscesses,
liver disease, pulmonary complications, and various types of pneumonia.6
- May cause depression
of central nervous system, cloudy mental functioning, and slowed breathing
to the point of respiratory failure.7
- Heroin overdose
may cause slow and shallow breathing, convulsions, coma, and possibly
death.8
- Users put themselves
at risk for contracting HIV, hepatitis B and C, and other viruses.9
1Office
of National Drug Control Policy, Street Terms: Drugs and the Drug
Trade.
2Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration, Summary of Findings from the 2000 National Household
Survey on Drug Abuse, September 2001.
3Drug Enforcement Administration, Drug
Trafficking in the United States, September 2001.
4Ibid.
5U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,
National Institute on Drug Abuse, Infofax: Heroin, 2000.
6Ibid.
7U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,
National Institute on Drug Abuse, Research Report: Heroin Abuse
and Addiction, 1999.
8Drug Enforcement Administration, Drug
Descriptions: Heroin.
9Office of National Drug Control Policy, Drug
Facts: Heroin.
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