Illegal drugs rarely come with an instruction manual. There is no brightly colored packaging with a “Directions” box on the side that tells you what to do. Furthermore, there is no quality control that will guarantee what you are about to use actually is what you think it is.
Many young people are buying what they think is ecstasy, for example, only to find that they actually bought bath salts or a contaminated version cut with all sorts of dangerous chemicals. This is the risk they take when they decide to buy and use a dangerous and illegal substance.
Since there is no instruction manual, every drug user has to figure out how he wants to use a drug for himself. The user may ask friends or watch other drug addicts to figure out what they’re doing, or he may simply decide to experiment for himself.
Heroin is one of the most popular illegal drugs in America today, so it’s worth knowing how heroin addicts are using this drug. Someone you know might decide to try it out, so you should be aware of how it can be administered and what to look for.
Injections
The most popular and widely-used method of taking heroin is to inject the drug. Heroin usually starts out in a hardened form such as the sticky “black tar” heroin, but it can also come in crystallized-looking lumps. Heroin users will heat the substance up, usually in a spoon over a handheld lighter, until it liquefies. Once the heroin has become a liquid it can be pulled up into a syringe.
Heroin users usually use diabetic syringes for this purpose because they are cheap and widely available. When they can’t get a new syringe, however, addicts will often re-use old needles or share needles with someone else that is using the drug. This is an extremely dangerous practice that has been responsible for an uncountable number of transmissions of hepatitis C, HIV and other incurable deadly diseases.
You are injecting the contents of the syringe directly into a vein, after all. Users that try this method may feel the effects of the drug the fastest (such as 7 or 8 seconds later), but they are also taking the most risk in doing so.
Snorting and smoking
The next most popular methods of using heroin are snorting it or smoking it. Snorting heroin can be far more dangerous than snorting cocaine due to the much greater chance of overdosing, but it is still a popular way to use the drug when the purity is high. Smoking heroin is also another popular method. When the drug gets melted down it emits an intoxicating vapor that can be smoked.
Both of these methods work by introducing the drug to your mucous membranes where it can travel to your brain and reach full effect in 10 to 15 minutes. They are also very dangerous because the irritation to your lungs and other mucous membranes can be high.
Other methods
Other methods of using the drug aren’t as popular, but they still exist. Some addicts will sprinkle the drug on a marijuana joint and smoke it that way. Others will come up with even more innovative ways to introduce it to the body. No matter what method they choose, using heroin at all is a very bad idea. If you know someone that has experimented with the drug and want help in getting them to quit, contact Narconon Arrowhead today. Talking to the addict might be the hardest thing you’ll ever do, but it will also be the most rewarding.