Category Archives: Heroin

Heroin Use On The Rise In US

Posted on by
Reply

Heroin use along with other highly addictive opiates is on the rise in the US. The report released by the National Office of Drug Control Policy has indicated that the drug has been detected in blood test taken from arrestees.

Heroin use is on the rise

Federal and local data suggest an uptick in heroin use in Colorado, a troubling development for local drug enforcement agencies and treatment programs.

One new federal drug use survey, the Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring Annual Report, shows that street use of opiate drugs, including heroin and opiate-based prescription medicines such as oxycodone, has doubled between 2000 and 2011.

The report, released May 17 by the National Office of Drug Control Policy, tracks the blood test results of adult male arrestees in Denver and nine other U.S. cities. In Denver; Indianapolis; Sacramento, Calif.; and Minneapolis, the number of adult male arrestees testing positive for opiates, including heroin and prescription painkillers, rose from 3 percent to 4 percent in 2000 to 8 percent to 10 percent in 2011.

Source: Denver Post

Many users prefer to smoke pills

The use of legal prescription drugs such as Oxycontin is also an epidemic in the US.

Many addicts doctor shop at pain relief clinics in Florida where the drug is prescribed without any controls.

Addicts and dealers then take the drugs back to their home states to use and or sell the drugs.

Little is being done to stop the epidemic. Clearly the war on drugs is ineffective as law enforcement agencies can do little to stem the flow of illegal drugs in the US.

It has been suggested by many that drugs need to legalised. Some countries where drugs have been legalised have seen a massive drop in the number of drug related crimes.

Legalising will free up the over crowded prison systems of many nations and place much needed finances into other areas such as health care and education.

People don’t become drug addicts because drugs are illegal, nor does the fact that drugs are illegal stop people from using them!

I Was An Addict!

Posted on by
Reply

I Was An Addict!

How I overcame my addiction.

I was a homeless Junky!

I struggled with addiction for many years, slowly over time my alcohol and drug problem became so bad and so all consuming, that I eventually found myself unable to maintain any sort of normal life whatsoever. This led me to becoming a full-time homeless person, and I used to sleep on the streets in one of Australia’s biggest cities.

I don’t think anybody wakes up one morning and decides that are going to become an alcoholic or drug addict, it just happens slowly over time.

I was in my late 30s when I decided that I had a choice and the choice was to continue slowly dying and kill myself or to give sobriety a try. At this stage I tried everything else (drugs) so I thought I should at least give sobriety 12 months and if I didn’t like it I could always go back to using drugs or committing suicide.

I tried many times to get myself into a detox and after multiple attempts at staying clean and sober for about seven days, I finally decided I needed to do long-term rehab.

Doing rehab itself wasn’t that difficult it was dealing with myself I found very difficult because for the first time in my life I was aptly dealing with myself.

It was really weird for the first few months; because I had an unfounded fear that I couldn’t quite put my finger upon and then as I became more and more compus mentis I finally realised that the thing that I was actually afraid of the most was myself.

In the early days of rehab, the first 12 months seemed like there was a giant light at the end of the tunnel and that once I got 12 months clean and sober I would be able to do anything. To be honest with you, the first 12 months was easy and once I passed through the light at the end of the tunnel into the seemingly normal light of day it was then I realised that I actually had a hell of a lot of work to do myself.

I got my own place and got all OCD about my environment and cleanliness. At one stage I couldn’t even leave the house unless I could see my own reflection in the kitchen taps. I attended church groups regularly in a search for some form of spirituality or some kind of connection with God but after a while I gave that up to because I couldn’t handle the moral exhaustion that being a born again Christian entails I thought to myself God can’t be that hard.

I attended many else self-help groups such as NA AA and regular group therapy sessions where I found that sitting around complaining about my problems actually made them worse!

I was almost 2 years clean the first time when I actually relapsed. The relapse happens slowly and at first, I thought I was cured and I could smoke marijuana, snort a bit of speed shoot up little bit of heroin and have a drink every now and then, as  it wouldn’t turn into a problem. I was wrong! it took about six weeks before I was fully back in the throes of addiction and it was when I got kicked out of the house where I was living. Sitting on the beach in the rain with all of my personal belongings, I realised in that moment I was back where I started!

I had to do something serious! I was not happy! This time I wasn’t going to do rehab I felt I didn’t need to thought I will just heavily involve myself in narcotics anonymous and do all of the suggested things. This lasted for about 12 months when I finally realised that there are other people in the world with real problems that aren’t self-imposed directly fighting over a grain of rice so they can have some to eat and here I am wealthy enough and fortunate enough to be sitting around in a room full of other people with a similar problem complaining about how used to be a drug addict and how bad my life was!

It was at that point in time that I had a real-life epiphany! I needed to make a radical change in the way I think the way I feel and the things I believe in. I needed to start believing in myself! I had to start to change the way I think I had to start saying to myself the reason I don’t use drugs is because I don’t want to not because I can’t stop once I start.

From that moment in time I decided I would make a commitment to myself and start to pursue the things that I enjoyed. I started to get back into my passions and started to take care of myself. I stopped going to meetings which made me feel bad about myself and contributed to my low self-esteem I stopped associating with other recovering drug addicts!

That was about 10 years ago! And to this day I have not used a drug or a drink and have not wanted to!

That’s right I don’t want to!

I don’t want to use drugs any more therefore I don’t think about them I don’t talk about them and I don’t hang around people who do use drugs! It’s that simple I do not believe that being a drug addicts is a genetic disposition and I also do not believe that there are hopeless cases, just people who feel hopeless. I can safely tell you right now I was one of the worst drug addicts I ever met I was on the $2000 a day heroin habit, I was a cocaine addict, I was a methylated spirits drinking alcoholic! I was homeless I was a common criminal.

I am no longer today I’m a happy healthy person capable of maintaining responsible relationships, I have good friends I have a partner I love and that loves me. I do the things I enjoy and live a full life. I’m not trying to tell anyone what to do but I tell you this right now it’s very simple just don’t take drugs!

Heroin

Posted on by
Reply

Heroin (diacetylmorphine or morphine diacetate)

Heroin also known as smack, the gear and horse was originally synthesised by C. R. Alder Wright in 1874 by by adding two acetyl groups to the molecule morphine, a derivative of the opium poppy. Originally the drug was designed to help soldiers who had come back from the war to overcome their morphine addiction. The drug was patented by the Bayer chemical company and was prescribed often.

The drug was later withdrawn from the market because of its highly addictive nature. Many sufferers found that the withdrawal from heroin was in fact more severe than the withdrawals that they had previously suffered from morphine.

The most popular method of using the drug is through intravenous injection. Other forms of the use are smoking and in some cases through suppositories. Once the drug has been broken down by the liver it restores itself to its original form which is morphine.

Most people who become addicted to heroin have to commit crimes in order to maintain their habit. Many addicts will do at least a 10 year addiction cycle on the drug before they get help usually through a long-term rehabilitation program.

Once the withdrawal symptoms start, which will happen in as little as 24 hours from the last dose, the addict will suffer and experience extreme bouts of diarrhoea, vomiting and a general feeling of absolute shit! These withdrawal symptoms are the addict’s biggest fear, and this is why he or she must at all costs maintain a continual supply of the drug. Heroin possesses the very soul of its users and slowly but surely strips away any self-respect, morals or decency that the person previously had!

Once the physical symptoms have subsided which usually happens about seven days later, the addict must start to deal with the psychological and emotional withdrawals from the drug which in many cases can feel a lot worse than the physical ones. Many recovering addicts will continue to attend self-help groups such as narcotics anonymous, but many will struggle in the early years and will often relapsed.

Some treatment methods or Heroin and replacement programs, include methadone, naltrexone and bupranorphine.

Most of the heroin on the street market is manufactured in backyard laboratories and is cut with a substance known as mannitol by up to 10 times. Heroin manufacturers use mannitol because dissolves easily and water. Every now and then a stronger batch of heroin hits the street, during this time we will see many people lose their lives as a result of heroin overdose.

Heroin is highly addictive!

Heroin overdose results in shutting down of the automatic respiratory system, resulting in a lack of oxygen to the brain, resulting in death.

Heroin is often referred to as the king of drugs because of the euphoric feeling that its users experience. When you are high on heroin all your cares and fears worries and frustrations seem to disappear into a cloudy haze.

Recovering heroin users will lament not only the physical feelings of the drug but also the activities and a lifestyle that used to revolve around the obtaining and the using of the drug.

 

Heroin Deal Gone Bad!

Posted on by

Heroin Addicts will do anything to feed thier habit. This “unlucky addict” was over powered by his female victim during a bungled heoin deal.

News source: Sky News

 

Heroin Deal Goes Bad!

Stephen Barry Chambers, 50, of Ferntree Gully, is facing six  charges over the attack on Tuesday during which the woman received  bite marks to her left and right forearms.

In the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Wednesday, Senior  Constable Daniel Chapman said Chambers met the woman on Monday  while buying heroin on Victoria Street in Richmond.

He said the woman called Chambers the following day and he  arranged to meet her at Abbotsford to buy more drugs.

He met the woman in her car before threatening her with a gun  and demanding she hand over her purse, Sen Const Chapman said.

The woman snatched the gun out of his hand, they struggled and  the gun was accidentally discharged, Sen Const Chapman told the  court.

Chambers then overpowered the woman and fled before throwing the  gun in a bin, the court heard.

He was arrested a short time later and police allegedly found  the woman’s purse as well as a 15cm hunting knife in his bag.

Chambers has been charged with armed robbery, intentionally and  recklessly causing injury and possessing an unregistered firearm.

Chambers, who the court heard is addicted to drugs, made no  application for bail and was remanded in custody.

Magistrate Donna Bakos ordered he return to court for a  committal mention on June 13.