The Spanish term for heroin is “Chiva,” which means ‘The Destroyer,’ and what an apt descriptor it is for this drug. Heroin boasts the highest mortality rate and also leads to the most ER visits of all illegal drugs. (Zickler, 1999) It is also arguably the most addictive, with many people hooked after a single hit and coming with severe withdrawal symptoms that prevent a person from breaking away.

Heroin is sometimes cut with Quinine, which causes vascular damage, respiratory distress, coma, or even death.

Almost half of all heroin addicts (and more than half of intravenous users) have been exposed to the AIDS virus. (Baglole, 2003; Hanson et al., 2004, p. 240) Other serious illnesses such as hepatitis-C are also spread through IV drug use.

Injection problems
Chronic injections can damage the veins, causing them to collapse, at which point it no longer delivers the drug to the system, forcing the user to find a new vein – legs, neck, even the temple. Some users resort to injecting under their tongue or in the groin. If the mixture isn’t properly filtered, or if there’s air in the syringe, users can also suffer a fatal ?embolism.?

Heroin, crime and violence
Most heroin users aren’t violent, while high, heroin puts the user in almost a catatonic state; a type of blissful, dream-like existence from which violence is unlikely to arise. However, many heroin addicts resort to crime to fund their habit, and the agitation experienced during withdrawal can also feed into aggressive behavior.

Heroin addicted babies

Around 10,000 heroin addicted babies are born in the U.S. each year. These babies go through all the same horrendous withdrawal symptoms a typical user might experience, which means they enter this world in pain and agony. It typically takes around 2 weeks to wean a drug-addicted baby. (Hanson et a1., 2004, p. 254)