Heroin

The nice thing about being a heroin addict is that you either have no problems or one big one - Richard Schuldenfrei

Heroin

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How France Cut Heroin Overdoses by 79 Percent in 4 Years


In the 1980s, France went through a heroin epidemic in which hundreds of thousands became addicted. Mohamed Mechmache, a community activist, described the scene in the poor banlieues back then: “To begin with, they would disappear to shoot up. But after a bit we’d see them all over the place, in the stairwells and halls, the bike shed, up on the roof with the washing lines. We used to collect the syringes on the football pitch before starting to play," he told The Guardian in 2014.

The rate of overdose deaths was rising 10 percent a year, yet treatment was mostly limited to counseling at special substance-abuse clinics.

In 1995, France made it so any doctor could prescribe…

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 How France Cut Heroin Overdoses by 79 Percent in 4 Years

In 1995, France made it so any doctor could prescribe buprenorphine without any special licensing or training. Buprenorphine, a first-line treatment for opioid addiction, is a medication that reduces cravings for opioids without becoming addictive itself.

Heroin.org

For all the varied treatment methods Heroin use remains a significant addiction problem world wide. In the United States one alarming trend is that the age of first use such that 1.5% of 9th graders report using heroin.

FRANK

Opium has been around for many hundreds of years and was originally used to treat pain, sleeplessness and diarrhoea. When morphine is made into heroin to be used as a medicine, it’s called diamorphine, and is stronger than morphine or opium. Like many drugs made from opium (called opiates), heroin is a very strong painkiller. ‘Street’ heroin sold as 'brown' is sometimes now used by clubbers as a chill out drug after a big night out.

In the know ZONE

Heroin, along with the other opioid drugs, is the most addictive illegal drug in use today. Addicts face many threats to their lives, not the least of which is the addiction itself.

National Institute on Drug Abuse

Heroin abuse is associated with serious health conditions, including fatal overdose, spontaneous abortion, collapsed veins, and, particularly in users who inject the drug, infectious diseases, including HIV/AIDS and hepatitis.

Neuroscience for Kids

Records indicate that opium was used by the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans. The poppy even appears on Egyptian art dating back 6,000 years. Opium was imported to China around 800 A.D. By the 1600s, opium smoking was widespread throughout China. In 1680, a famous English physician named Thomas Syndenham introduced opium to the medical field.

The Vaults of Erowid

Heroin is a powerful opiate pain-killer that produces euphoria and blissful apathy. It is known for leading to addiction and difficult physical withdrawal symptoms.

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