heroin

Powerful opiate analgesic, an acetyl derivative of morphine. It is more addictive than morphine but causes less nausea. Methadone can be used to help wean addicts off heroin however it too is addictive.

It is one of the most abused drugs in the USA. Because of its powerful habit-forming qualities, its manufacture and import are forbidden in the USA, even for medical use.

Heroin usage is spreading among the affluent in the USA, according to a 1997 report by the National Center of Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University in New York City. The new users are believed to be ‘yuppie, suburban addicts’. There were about 700,000 heroin addicts in the USA in 1997, compared to an estimated 550,000 in 1987. About 115,000 are on methadone maintenance.

Heroin was discovered in Germany in 1898.The major regions of opium production, for conversion to heroin, are the ‘Golden Crescent’ of Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan, and the ‘Golden Triangle’ across parts of Myanmar (Burma), Laos, and Thailand.