At the age
of 20 I became a statistic when I started using heroin… E.C.
At the age of 20 I became a statistic when I started using
heroin. In fact, we are now seeing, the glamorization and use of heroin in the
media and changing patterns of drug use among youth. With heroin's increased
purity and decreased prices it is essential that the public have information on
this topic.
According to the 1998 National Household Survey on Drug
Abuse an estimated 2.4 million people had used heroin at some time in their
lives, and nearly 130,000 of them reported using it within the month preceding
the survey. According to the Office of the National Drug Control Policy there
were an estimated 104,000 new heroin users in 1999. Among these new users,
87,000 were between the ages of 12 and 25. 34,000 new users were under 18. The
average age among new heroin users is 19.
Many new users are smoking,
snorting, or sniffing heroin - 87 percent are under the age of 20.
The
most horrible long-term effect of heroin is addiction itself. Heroin produces
profound degrees of physical dependence and tolerance. These are the motivating
factors for compulsive use and abuse. Gradually abusers spend more and more
time and energy using and obtaining the drug. Once I became addicted to heroin
my primary purpose in life was obtaining and using it. It felt as though heroin
had literally changed my brain.
It is said that physical dependence
develops with using higher doses but I became physically dependant within a
month of use. Physical withdrawal symptoms are nothing short of agony and
usually occurred within a few hours. Symptoms of withdrawal include severe bone
and muscle pain, insomnia and restlessness, diarrhea, vomiting, goose bumps,
sweats and involuntary leg movements. They usually last a few days to a week.
However, some people have shown persistent withdrawal signs that last many
months.
There is also a very high chance of craving and relapse
occurring weeks and months after withdrawal symptoms are long gone. The initial
rush of using heroin is usually accompanied by a warm feeling and a possible
flushing of the skin. Dry mouth usually follows and a heavy feeling, which may
be accompanied by nausea and/or vomiting and itching of the face and body and
drowsiness lasting several hours. Mental function, cardiac function and
breathing is clouded and/or slowed by heroin's effect on the central nervous
system. The strong euphoric high is the thing that attracts and then traps many
users.
Those using the drug are at particular risk of overdose on the
street, where the amount and purity of the drug cannot be accurately known.
Signs of overdose may include slow and shallow breathing, clammy skin,
convulsions, coma, and possible death. Heroin can be injected, sniffed/snorted,
or smoked. A heroin abuser may use the drug many times per day. Injecting
heroin provides the greatest intensity and most rapid effects. When heroin is
sniffed or smoked, effects are felt within 10 to 15 minutes. All three forms of
heroin use are addictive. The fact that high-purity heroin can be effectively
smoked and snorted may be attracting new users to the drug. In fact this was
how my addiction to the drug began. Users who snort or smoke avoid the fear of
catching diseases that go along with using the syringe such as HIV/AIDS and
hepatitis and social stigma of injection, although they are at the same risk of
overdose death.
The most upsetting thing about this addiction is the
toll it takes on those who care about the addict. Heroin addiction is one that
leaves many wondering what happened to their loved one, who at one time had so
many choices in life. I read in a medical study done in 1999 that heroin
addicts are 13 times more likely to die than non-users in their same age,
gender, demographic etc. There is no way to describe the daily misery and agony
I went through while addicted to heroin. The fact is that millions are
presently undergoing the same misery every day in the U.S. alone.
I was
one of the addicts who made it out alive by finally overcoming my addiction
when I completed the Narconon Program a few months ago. Many others end up in
prison or even worse, dead. There is a way out of the horrors of heroin
addiction. There is a way to get your life back. I did it through the Narconon
program.
E.C. - Narconon Graduate |
