It is generally illegal to make, possess, or sell heroin without a license. In 2. 01. 5 Afghanistan produced about 6. Often heroin, which is illegally sold, is mixed with other substances such as sugar or strychnine. Uses. Long term effects of intravenous usage, including and indeed primarily because of the effects of the contaminants common in illegal heroin and contaminated needles. Short term effects of usage1. Recreational. The original trade name of heroin is typically used in non medical settings. It is used as a recreational drug for the euphoria it induces. Anthropologist Michael Agar once described heroin as the perfect whatever drug. Tolerance develops quickly, and increased doses are needed in order to achieve the same effects. Its popularity with recreational drug users, compared to morphine, reportedly stems from its perceived different effects. In particular, users report an intense rush, an acute transcendent state of euphoria, which occurs while diamorphine is being metabolized into 6 monoacetylmorphine 6 MAM and morphine in the brain. Some believe that heroin produces more euphoria than other opioids one possible explanation is the presence of 6 monoacetylmorphine, a metabolite unique to heroin although a more likely explanation is the rapidity of onset. While other opioids of recreational use produce only morphine, heroin also leaves 6 MAM, also a psycho active metabolite. However, this perception is not supported by the results of clinical studies comparing the physiological and subjective effects of injected heroin and morphine in individuals formerly addicted to opioids these subjects showed no preference for one drug over the other. Equipotent injected doses had comparable action courses, with no difference in subjects self rated feelings of euphoria, ambition, nervousness, relaxation, drowsiness, or sleepiness. Short term addiction studies by the same researchers demonstrated that tolerance developed at a similar rate to both heroin and morphine. When compared to the opioids hydromorphone, fentanyl, oxycodone, and pethidine meperidine, former addicts showed a strong preference for heroin and morphine, suggesting that heroin and morphine are particularly susceptible to abuse and addiction. Morphine and heroin were also much more likely to produce euphoria and other positive subjective effects when compared to these other opioids. Some researchers have attempted to explain heroin use and the culture that surrounds it through the use of sociological theories. In Righteous Dopefiend, Philippe Bourgois and Jeff Schonberg use anomie theory to explain why people begin using heroin. By analyzing a community in San Francisco, they demonstrated that heroin use was caused in part by internal and external factors such as violent homes and parental neglect. This lack of emotional, social, and financial support causes strain and influences individuals to engage in deviant acts, including heroin usage. They further found that heroin users practiced retreatism, a behavior first described by Howard Abadinsky, in which those suffering from such strain reject societys goals and institutionalized means of achieving them. Medical uses. In the United States heroin is not accepted as medically useful. Under the generic name diamorphine, heroin is prescribed as a strong pain medication in the United Kingdom, where it is given via subcutaneous, intramuscular, intrathecal or intravenously. Its use includes treatment for acute pain, such as in severe physical trauma, myocardial infarction, post surgical pain, and chronic pain, including end stage cancer and other terminal illnesses. In other countries it is more common to use morphine or other strong opioids in these situations. In 2. 00. 4 the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence produced guidance on the management of caesarian section, which recommended the use of intrathecal or epidural diamorphine for post operative pain relief. Diamorphine continues to be widely used in palliative care in the UK, where it is commonly given by the subcutaneous route, often via a syringe driver, if patients cannot easily swallow morphine solution. The advantage of diamorphine over morphine is that diamorphine is more fat soluble and therefore more potent by injection, so smaller doses of it are needed for the same effect on pain. Both of these factors are advantageous if giving high doses of opioids via the subcutaneous route, which is often necessary in palliative care. Maintenance therapy. A number of European countries including the United Kingdom allow the prescribing of heroin for heroin addiction. Diamorphine is also used as a maintenance drug to assist the treatment of opiate addiction, normally in long term chronic intravenous IV heroin users. It is only prescribed following exhaustive efforts at treatment via other means. It is sometimes thought that heroin users can walk into a clinic and walk out with a prescription, but the process takes many weeks before a prescription for diamorphine is issued. Though this is somewhat controversial among proponents of a zero tolerancedrug policy, it has proven superior to methadone in improving the social and health situations of addicts. The UK Department of Healths Rolleston Committee Report2. British approach to diamorphine prescription to users, which was maintained for the next 4. Source Insight Crack Cocaine© 2017