Heroin is a cruel drug. A few minutes of intoxication are bought at the price of rapid physical decline, social impoverishment, and the great risk of an overdose.

What is heroin made of?

Heroin belongs to the group of substances called opiates. It is obtained from opium poppies, which are grown from Turkey to Southeast Asia. It is closely related to pain relievers like morphine. The active ingredient content of heroin fluctuates between 10 and 95 percent. Often dangerous substances such as the poisonous strychnine are mixed in.

What is the effect of the drug?

Heroin has a calming, relaxing, and pain-relieving effect. At the same time as euphoria, it dampens mental activity. Negative sensations such as fear, reluctance, emptiness, problems and burdens are hidden. Consumers feel happy and satisfied. However, the pleasant effect only lasts for a few minutes. After that, the junkies get sleepy for several hours. When the effects are over, the body immediately craves more. Heroin users in Germany mostly use syringe. The brownish crystalline powder can also be smoked or snorted.

What are the consequences of using heroin?

Consumption is devastating. Due to the unfavorable living conditions, contamination of the drug and the needles, long-term users must expect physical consequences such as liver damage, stomach and intestinal disorders, tooth decay and tooth loss, as well as diseases of the lungs. Injections can cause infections such as HIV and hepatitis. Abscesses and inflammation of lymph vessels often form at the puncture sites. Vein damage and heart inflammation are not uncommon. In men, heroin affects potency and in women, it affects menstruation. Mentally there are concentration and learning difficulties. The addiction reduces the mental capacity for absorption and memory, leads to introversion and loss of appetite, makes aimless, disinterested, and depressed.

How strong is the addiction?

Heroin quickly leads to physical and psychological dependence. The physical withdrawal symptoms are severe: sweating, freezing, tremors, severe pain in the limbs, sleep disorders, and even circulatory collapse. Addicts try to avoid withdrawal at all costs. Since addiction exceeds the financial means of most addicts, many of them go into poverty. "I was raped, beaten, mugged, robbed, arrested, homeless, sick, and desperate. I knew that no one could endure such a lifestyle for long ... I thought that death was definitely better than being a junkie", a heroin addict recalls the time when she was hanging on the needle.

Why do so many junkies die?

With no other drug, the risk of a fatal trip is as high as with heroin. Because the margin between tolerance and overdose is very small. A "shot" of heroin usually contains ten milligrams of the powder. For someone who is not used to it, even five milligrams can be fatal. But also users with drug experience can die from an overdose if they increase the amount of the drug too quickly due to increasing withdrawal symptoms. It is particularly dangerous when heroin is mixed with cocaine to form a so-called speedball. Both substances can increase their effects.