Heroin Abuse and Addiction

In the United States, there are over 810,000 people that have a heroin abuse or heroin addiction problem.  

Heroin abuse is the most frequent abused and the most rapidly acting of the opiates. It is processed from morphine, the naturally occurring substance extracted from the seedpod of certain varieties of poppy plants. It is usually sold as a white or brownish powder, or in some regions of the country (particularly in the Southwest) as a black sticky substance known on the street as "black tar heroin." Heroin can be injected, sniffed/snorted or smoked. It is important to point out at the outset that regardless of how heroin is taken can lead to other detrimental consequences as well as an addiction.

Heroin abuse is not a new problem.

In fact opiate use dates back long in history. What is new and particularly alarming, however, is the high purity of today\s heroin, its inexpensive price, and the way it is being taken, all of which appear to be recruiting new users. Heroin is now cheaper and purer than ever, making it more accessible to young people who can smoke or snort the drug rather than inject it intravenously. Until recently, the most common route for administering heroin was through intravenous injection. Today, given the purity of the drug, in many regions of the country, including the Philadelphia metropolitan area, where street-level heroin purity remains one of the highest in the Nation, people can snort heroin and achieve a high that is similar to what they can obtain from injection. Our research is showing that many of the new initiates to heroin abuse are in fact trying the drug because they can snort it and think they would be protected by not injecting. In addition to that last fact being clearly wrong, studies also show that noninjecting heroin users are at considerable risk of becoming injection drug users (IDUs). In fact, more than 15% of participants in a recent study transitioned from other routes of administration to drug injection during an average period of little more than a year.

The health risks associated with both injecting and noninjecting heroin use are also substantial. For example, because of the behavioral factors (high risk sexual activity, sharing of drug paraphernalia) associated with heroin use, the chances of the individual contracting an infectious disease such as HIV, hepatitis B, and in rare cases hepatitis C, are greatly increased regardless of route of administration.

Misperceptions About Heroin Addiction

The misperceptions about heroin addiction, may account for why in 1997, an estimated 81,000 persons used heroin for the first time. We are also seeing increases in the annual number of heroin-related emergency room visits. From 1991 to 1997, the annual number of emergency room visits in major metropolitan areas increased from 36,000 to 72,000. Similar trends are being seen in the Delaware Valley. The number of emergency room visits involving heroin abuse in Philadelphia has increased from 2,653 in 1990 to 3,817 in 1997.

We are also seeing increases in the number of individuals who are seeking heroin addiction and heroin abuse treatment.  Nationally, admissions for heroin use by injection have dropped from 77 percent of all heroin treatment admissions in 1992 to 68 percent in 1997, while the percentage of heroin admissions for inhalation has increased from 19 percent in 1992 to 28 percent in 1997 (National Admissions to Substance Abuse Treatment Services: The Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS) 1992-1997). This is also a trend we are seeing at the local level. For example, last year in Philadelphia, 39 percent of the heroin treatment admissions were for snorting heroin.

Information relased by the National Institute on Drug Abuse

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