1. By Sam Robinson, Rico Baltazar, and Abhay Srinivas
Heroin
By Sam Robinson, Rico Baltazar, and Abhay Srinivas

2. What is heroin?
Heroin is a powder that can be multi-colored due to additives put into it.
The drug is highly addictive and illegal; people continuously use it because they don’t want to experience withdrawal.
Comes from poppy plants
Usually injected into body, but can be smoked or snorted as well

3. Origins
Heroin was first manufactured in 1898 by the German company Bayer Pharmaceutical, for use in the treatment of tuberculosis. Surprisingly, heroin was also used as a remedy for morphine addiction.
Heroin became a major problem after it became a substitute for the morphine dilemma in the U.S.

4. Origins (continued)
Heroin was first synthesized by C.R. Alder Wright  in 1874, and made by adding two acetyl groups to the morphine molecule.
Soon after the heroin “craze”, methadone, a drug first manufactured in 1937 by German scientists in their search for a surgical painkiller, was shipped to the U.S., becoming even more addictive than heroin.

5. Stats 9.2 million people use heroin in the world
In the U.S., 153,000 people use heroin
4 out of every 5 drug related deaths were caused by opiates, mainly heroin.
16 million people worldwide use opiates
Opiates, mainly heroin, are responsible for 18% of submissions into drug and alcohol treatment in the U.S.
Between 1995 and 2002, the number of teens who use heroin has increased by 300%.

6. Effects: Short term
Initial feeling of heightened senses – people feel a “rush”
Warmer skin
Dry mouth
Clouded mental functioning
Extroverted Feeling
Temporary sense of heightened sexual performance
Aches and pains (in bones)
Hypothermia
Drowsiness

7. Effects: Long term Hepatitis C2 Inflamed gums Constipation Cold Sweats
Thin, bony, sick feeling
Itchiness
Bad teeth
Collapsed veins
Infections of the blood vessels and heart valves
Arthritis
AIDS

8. Effects (continued): Long term
Immune system weakens and deteriorates/breaks down, leading to severe impacts on the body (more disease prone) and ultimately death
Warmer skin
Dry mouth
Clouded mental functioning
Increased tolerance after every dose
Reduced sexual capacity
Menstrual disturbance in women
Inability to achieve orgasm (men and women)
Insomnia
Loss of memory and appetite
Depression

9. The Heroin “Look”
Fashion designers, photographers, and advertising people/companies like Calvin Klein have encouraged heroin use in youths because the drug is portrayed as fashionable and desirable. One of the most famous/popular heroin portrayals was the “heroin chic”.
This has increased the overall usage of heroin in people.

10. Types of Heroin
Cheese heroin – a mix of black tar, Mexican heroin, and over the counter cold medication
Relatively cheap
Effects include – Slow breathing and heartbeat, death
Children as young as 9 have become hooked on/addicted to cheese heroin

11. Street Names for Heroin
Big H H
Hell Dust
Nose Drops
Horse
Smash
Thunder
Brown
Gear
Smack
Skag

12. Why do people take heroin?
Peer pressure
Want to be “cool”/fit in
Persuasion from dealers
Want to feel heightened and experience a “rush”.
Increased sexual performance (only temporary)
Even a single dose of heroin can make people addicts and put them on the “road to addiction”.

13. Interesting Facts
By the 1990s, the mortality rate of heroin addicts was 20 times higher than the rest of the population of drug users/addicts.
Heroin once frightened people – then, as heroin became portrayed as fashionable and “cool”, the massive addiction to the drug started.
Davide Sorrenti, a famous photographer whose works often included and were associated with the “heroin chic”, died due to a heroin overdose. He was only 20 years old.

14. Interesting Facts(continued)
Heroin's various forms have increased in number in recent years, making more tempting for people to take and get hooked on than ever.
Many teenagers think that smoking heroin is less risky (poses less dangers) than injecting it. This is a myth, and it is completely false.
Dealers of heroin are extremely persuasive, and admit using buyers/consumers of the drug as “pawns in a chess game” - their only goal is to get the cash from users and addicts.

15. Reasons People Take Drugs
To solve their problems
To fit in
To escape from life or relax
To relieve boredom
To appear grown up and adult - like
To rebel
To test the drug out and experiment (with it)

16. Don’t Do Heroin, Kids.