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develops. Withdrawal symptoms can begin within a few hours of
last use and can include restlessness, body ache, muscle pain,
insomnia, diarrhea, nausea, stomach cramps, vomiting, and hot/cold
flashes. These symptoms peak between 24 and 48 hours after the last
dose and subside after about a week, but may persist for up to a month.
Heroin withdrawal is generally not fatal in an otherwise healthy adult,
but can cause death to the fetus of a pregnant addict.

When purchased on the street, heroin is often adulterated with
substances such as sugar, starch, powdered milk, strychnine and other
poisons, or other drugs. These additives may not dissolve when
injected in a user’s system and can clog the blood vessels that lead to
the lungs, liver, kidneys, or brain, infecting or even killing patches of
cells in vital organs. In addition, many users do not know the heroin’s
actual strength or its true contents and are at risk of exposure to a
tainted or contaminated quantity of heroin causing neurotoxic damage,
drug overdose or even death.

Chronic heroin use can lead to medical consequences such as scarred
and/or collapsed veins, bacterial infections of the blood vessels and
heart valves, abscesses and other soft-tissue infections, and liver or
kidney disease. Poor health conditions and depressed respiration from
heroin use can cause lung complications, including various types of
pneumonia and tuberculosis. Other long-term effects of heroin use
can include arthritis and other rheumatologic problems and infection
of bloodborne pathogens such as HIV/AIDS and hepatitis B and C
(which are contracted by sharing and reusing syringes and other
injection paraphernalia). It is estimated that injection drug use has
been a factor in one third of all HIV and more than half of all hepatitis
C cases in the United States. Heroin use by a pregnant woman can
result in a miscarriage or premature delivery. Heroin exposure in
utero can increase a newborns’ risk of SIDS (sudden infant death
syndrome).

Opioid Drugs

The term “opioids” includes all of the drugs that come from the opium
poppy such as morphine and codeine; semi-synthetics such as heroin;