There are many ways to justify bad decisions. People end up in dead end jobs, loveless relationships and bad financial deals due to explaining away bad decisions or turning a blind eye to dangerous signs. On the path towards any unhappy circumstance, there are many small detrimental choices that build the foundation for big, harmful decisions. In the world of drug use and drug addiction, this scenario plays out like broken record, with countless junkies making the same mistakes over and over again until they find themselves a slave to their problems.
Many people who have tried recreational drugs or abused prescription medications will tell you that the worries around drug addiction are overblown, there is no such thing as a gateway drug and people don’t get addicted the first time they try a drug. Sadly, these statements are no truer than the promises of an addict. Addiction is a big problem in the United States, and a large part of the blame should be associated with gateway drugs and experimentation.
Heroin, The First Time
Heroin is a massive danger in America for a number of reasons. It’s a cheap drug with a huge supply that can destroy lives easily. After injecting, snorting or smoking heroin for the first time, a user may vomit, itch severely and become very sedate. The drug is a downer, which means that the rush felt by the user will be linked to the lung, heart and body function slowing down. It only lasts a few hours, and within a day or two, the user may start feeling withdrawal symptoms.
Heroin is known for its highly addictive qualities, but very few people realize that addicts don’t realize they’re addicted in the beginning. After the first few uses, a heroin addict might not feel any withdrawal which often emboldens the user to continue the drug. The seemingly benign reaction contradicts what they may have heard about heroin, so they feel that the drug might not be as bad as its reputation. Many addicts make these choices before destroying their lives with the drug.
Experimentation
As far as experimenting with a drug known for its addictive qualities and it’s deadly effects is concerned, many bad decisions would have been made to lead a person to want to experiment with heroin. Of all the people that have used heroin, 23% have subsequently become addicted to the drug. Heroin is the number one killer of people who die from taking illicit drugs, and the numbers are climbing. How can heroin kill you? It puts your body into a deep, almost unconscious sleep. The sleep is so deep that your body can basically forget how to breath air into the lungs. But that’s not all, you could also have your blood pressure dip to the point where your heart fails or have a condition where your veins decide to start pumping blood into your lungs. Heroin is basically a drug that can make your body forget how to function like a normal body.
Experimenting is what you do when you order exploding fire noodles instead of Pad Thai, or blonde hair dye instead of brunette. Experimentation should not mean ingesting a drug that could be laced with any number of toxic contaminants or put you into a coma.
Gateway
Heroin is also known for being on the receiving end of gateway drugs. Prescription pain medications are becoming abused at an alarming rate and are driving people to use heroin. The high costs of painkillers make the finances of addiction a burden, while heroin stands as a cheaper substitute. Regardless of the path, an outcome of heroin addiction can start with just one use. Whether experimenting with heroin, substituting heroin for other drugs or just falling into the drug through a sequence of bad decisions, heroin is a drug that can wreck your life.
References:
CNN.com – How Heroin Kills – http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/04/health/how-heroin-kills/
DrugFreeWorld.org – The Destructive Effects of Heroin –
http://www.drugfreeworld.org/drugfacts/heroin/the-destructive-effects-of-heroin.html
DrugAbuse.gov – Heroin – http://www.drugabuse.gov/drugs-abuse/heroin