Philip Wolny - The Truth about Heroin

INTRODUCTION

I n early 2013, troubling reports were coming in from all over the United States. Medical first responders and emergency room staff saw the devastating effects firsthand. Calls for ambulances and emergency room visits were rising dramatically. Crimes like burglary and theft were, too. Dozens of state and local governments were declaring medical emergencies. The culprit was one of the most addictive drugs around: heroin.

The heroin epidemic afflicting communities nationwide surprised law enforcement, politicians, and everyday citizens. One long-standing and incorrect myth has been that heroin is a problem limited to major cities. By the late-2000s, heroin's presence in suburbs and small towns could not be ignored. Even more disturbing was the drug's increasing popularity among younger users, including teens.

Jerry Elsner of the Illinois State Crime Commission told theChicago Daily Herald in March 2013 about the more than three thousand heroin overdoses in his state in 2012, adding, "It is an emergency. We could lose a whole generation of kids." Elsner's sentiments were echoed by Risa Vetri Ferman, a district attorney in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, who told the Mercury newspaper, "Years ago you would think about a heroin addict as a junkie...some older person who is addicted to this and they're kind of wandering around, out of it all the time. Now we're just seeing a different kind of customer, younger and not necessarily aware of the dangers."

Similar stories have been unfolding in Massachusetts, Missouri, Ohio, Oregon, and many other states. Public health experts and law enforcement agencies blame a combination of factors. A new generation of users is graduating from abusing prescription painkillers and other pharmaceuticals. Heroin is now cheaper than ever, and criminal organizations such as Mexican drug cartels have introduced incredibly potent heroin into thousands of communities.

Along with the deaths caused by overdose, heroin addiction affects the social fabric of communities and can tear families apart. Its victims are often helpless in controlling their behavior because of the drug's power: HIV, hepatitis C, and other diseases that are spread through the use of needles are on the rise, too.

Many people who become heroin addicts think, "It could never happen to me." This is a dangerous myth because the drug can take over the lives of even first-time or casual users. Heroin changes the brain and has many negative effects on a user's health. Addiction makes slaves of heroin users and often leads to a life of sickness, crime, and regret. Addicts risk sacrificing everything they cherish in their lives for the drug, receiving jail time for drug-related offenses, and losing their own lives in the process. Discovering how the drug functions in the brain and body of a user, and how addiction regularly devastates the lives it touches, can help one make the right decision to avoid heroin at all costs.

H eroin has been around in many forms for decades. Its narcotic ancestor, opium, appeared in ancient and modern civilizations. Some say it even existed before recorded history. It is part of the class of drugs known as opioids.

Many opioids, but not all, are synthesized from the opium poppy plant. Opium poppies grow in Asian nations such as Afghanistan, Turkey, and Laos, and in the Western Hemisphere in South America and Mexico. Opiates include drugs that are naturally derived from the poppy, while opioids include opiates as well as artificial or synthetic versions.

Outside Kandahar, Afghanistan, poppy farmer Abdul Samad slices opium poppies. Afghanistan remains a major source of heroin, helping feed the addictions of users worldwide, including those in the United States.

Heroin Emerges

For centuries, the main opiate used worldwide was opium, a paste made from the opium poppy that contains morphine, which itself is used to create heroin. Opium was smoked or otherwise ingested to relieve pain during surgery by ancient Sumerians, Egyptians, Greeks, and Arabs, among others.

The Swiss-German alchemist Paracelsus created laudanum in the sixteenth century, mixing opium, alcohol, and spices as a pain remedy. For centuries, similar painkillers were used to calm down children, cure insomnia, and alleviate the symptoms of dozens of diseases. Many different medications and herbal remedies used opium, and their use in the United States was widespread throughout the nineteenth century.

In 1874, the English chemist and physicist Charles Romley Alder Wright was the first person to synthesize heroin as we know it today. The German chemical and pharmaceutical company Bayer began selling it in 1898 as a pain reliever and cough suppressant. Named after the German word heroisch, meaning "powerful," heroin began as a brand-name medicine. "Heroin" was the commercial trademark for the drug's scientific name (diacetylmorphine).

Those who are addicted to heroin are sometimes called "junkies." This is a slang term believed to arise from users at the beginning of the twentieth century who collected scrap metal and other "junk" to pay for their drugs. In the same manner, "junk" sometimes refers to heroin itself.

Back on the Map

Heroin use rises and falls every decade, but the drug always seems to come back. In the 1970s and early 1980s, even strong samples of heroin were only around 10 percent pure. By the late 2000s, a new heroin epidemic was raging. Mexican drug cartels began importing extremely potent heroin to American streets. Pure heroin can range in color from white to brown, while the Mexican "black tar" variety is among the most potent. It can be sticky, like tar used in roofing, or hard and coal-like, ranging in color from dark brown to black.

THE POPPY AND GEOPOLITICS
Poppy cultivation and the drug trade it supplies have long posed problems in international politics. The British Empire fought the First Opium War (1839-1842) partly to continue importing opium into China, which had tried to ban it and was eventually defeated. Later, Britain and France united for the Second Opium War (1856-1860) to continue to ensure this lucrative trade.