Heroin Video PSA

Public domain public service announcement video from the Partnership for a Drug Free America. Heroin is processed from morphine, a naturally occurring substance extracted from the seedpod of the Asian poppy plant. Heroin usually appears as a white or brown powder. Street names for heroin include "smack," "H," "skag," and "junk." Other names may refer to types of heroin produced in a specific geographical area, such as "Mexican black tar." Heroin can be used in a variety of ways, depending on user preference and the purity of the drug. Heroin can be injected into a vein ("mainlining"), injected into a muscle, smoked in a water pipe or standard pipe, mixed in a marijuana joint or regular cigarette, inhaled as smoke through a straw, known as "chasing the dragon," snorted as powder via the nose. What are its short-term effects? The short-term effects of heroin abuse appear soon after a single dose and disappear in a few hours.After an injection of heroin, the user reports feeling a surge of euphoria ("rush") accompanied by a warm flushing of the skin, a dry mouth, and heavy extremities. Following this initial euphoria, the user goes "on the nod," an alternately wakeful and drowsy state. Mental functioning becomes clouded due to the depression of the central nervous system. Other effects included slowed and slurred speech, slow gait, constricted pupils, droopy eyelids, impaired night vision, vomiting, constipation. What are its long-term effects? Long-term effects of heroin appear after repeated use for some period of time. Chronic users may develop collapsed veins, infection of the heart lining and valves, abscesses, cellulites, and liver disease. Pulmonary complications, including various types of pneumonia, may result from the poor health condition of the abuser, as well as from heroin's depressing effects on respiration.In addition to the effects of the drug itself, street heroin may have additives that do not really dissolve and result in clogging the blood vessels that lead to the lungs, liver, kidneys, or brain. This can cause infection or even death of small patches of cells in vital organs. With regular heroin use, tolerance develops. This means the abuser must use more heroin to achieve the same intensity or effect. As higher doses are used over time, physical dependence and addiction develop. With physical dependence, the body has adapted to the presence of the drug and withdrawal symptoms may occur if use is reduced or stopped. Withdrawal, which in regular abusers may occur as early as a few hours after the last administration, produces drug craving, restlessness, muscle and bone pain, insomnia, diarrhea and vomiting, cold flashes with goose bumps ("cold turkey"), kicking movements ("kicking the habit"), and other symptoms. Major withdrawal symptoms peak between 48 and 72 hours after the last does and subside after about a week. Sudden withdrawal by heavily dependent users who are in poor health can be fatal. Heroin is a highly addictive drug, and its abuse has repercussions that extend far beyond the individual user. The medical and social consequences of drug abuse - HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, fetal effects, crime, violence, and disruptions in family, workplace, and educational environments - have a devastating impact on society and cost billions of dollars each year. Although heroin abuse has trended downward during the past several years, its prevalence is still higher than in the early 1990s. These relatively high rates of abuse, especially among school-age youth, and the glamorization of heroin in music and films make it imperative that the public has the latest scientific information on this topic. Heroin also is increasing in purity and decreasing in price, which makes it an attractive option for young people. Like many other chronic diseases, addiction can be treated. Fortunately, the availability of treatments to manage opiate addiction and the promise from research of new and effective behavioral and pharmacological therapies provides hope for individuals who suffer from addiction and for those around them. For example, buprenorphine, approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2002, provides a less addictive alternative to methadone maintenance, reduces cravings with only mild withdrawal symptoms, and can be prescribed in the privacy of a doctor's office.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• heroin
• drug
• drugs
• addicts
• addiction
• addict
• trafficking
• sellers
• users
• use
• abuse
• narcotic
• opiates
• opium
• narcotics
• pushers

[witchcerridwen]

thanks for posting this video.it shows what addiction can do to people,

[rosaryfilms]

@witchcerridwen - thank you for your comment! regards

[mcwmomma]

Just found this while watching "Dwayne Stomp PSA". Thank you for sharing this. It absolutely made me stop & think. condolences on your loss.....

[rosaryfilms]

@mcwmomma - thank you for sharing your comments...

[krazimuffin]

Thanks for this video. It's hard to watch friends mess up their lives with drugs. It's even harder to watch them die from them. I shot smack for 10 years. For the past six years I've been off of it and living a normal life. My purpose of saying this is to let ppl know that it is possible to get off of it. It's very difficult but IS possible. You don't have to die.

[rosaryfilms]

krazimuffin, thank you very much for your comments -- they will help others. Regards...

[bldtraffic]

@suba1234...

My story as well, but crack and H. I would smoke until I couldn't smoke anymore, and then do a few spoons, chill for awhile and start over again.

A few of those cycles and you find yourself in 4-point restraints in a psych ward.

I'm now clean the same amount of time I had been using... Too bad we don't get "do-overs", huh?

[ArroganceClause]

it kinda sounds like a rap in the middle Psh Rodney Psh on Heroin Psh Rodne Psh on Heroin

someone should sample thissssssss

[504henrynola]

i miss heroin it feels like an orgasm

[romellemejia]

why do people waste their lives by using those drugs? it is of no difference in committing suicide. life is good, don't waste it.

[chelson77]

sad:(

he was2 young R.I.P from slovenia

[Rach3lb3]

Hardcore Pawn

[edenaus]

We killed Rodney, by criminalizing heroin. It affected Rodney s health and ultimately

caused him to OD. Rodney could have smoked some opium and never died but we made refined smack available for Rodney as its easier to import. Rodney would still be alive today if we hadn't killed him. You didnt really give a fsck about Rodney