Heroin is an illegal, highly addictive drug. It is both the most abused and the most rapidly acting of the opiates. Heroin is processed from morphine, a naturally occurring substance extracted from the seed pod of certain varieties of poppy plants. It is typically sold as a white or brownish powder or as the black sticky substance known on the streets as “black tar heroin.” Although purer heroin is becoming more common, most street heroin is “cut” with other drugs or with substances such as sugar, starch, powdered milk, or quinine. Street heroin can also be cut with strychnine, fentanyl or other poisons. Because heroin abusers do not know the actual strength of the drug or its true contents, they are at risk of overdose or death. Heroin also poses special problems because of the transmission of HIV and other diseases that can occur from sharing needles or other injection equipment.

First synthesized from morphine in 1874, heroin was not extensively used in medicine until the early 1900s. Commercial production of the new pain remedy was first started in 1898. It initially received widespread acceptance from the medical profession, and physicians remained unaware of its addiction potential for years.  Today, heroin is an illicit substance having no medical utility in the United States.

Heroin can be injected, smoked, or sniffed/snorted. Injection is the most efficient way to administer low-purity heroin. The availability of high-purity heroin, however, and the fear of infection by sharing needles has made snorting and smoking the drug more common. National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) researchers have confirmed that all forms of heroin administration are addictive.

Chronic users may develop collapsed veins, infection of the heart lining and valves, abscesses, cellulites, and liver disease. Pulmonary complications, including various types of pneumonia, may result from the poor health condition of the abuser, as well as from heroin's depressing effects on respiration. In addition to the effects of the drug itself, street heroin may have additives that do not really dissolve and result in clogging the blood vessels that lead to the lungs, liver, kidneys, or brain. This can cause infection or even death of small patches of cells in vital organs.

One of the most significant effects of heroin use is addiction. With regular heroin use, tolerance to the drug develops. Once this happens, the abuser must use more heroin to achieve the same intensity or effect that they are seeking. As higher doses of the drug are used over time, physical dependence and addiction to the drug develop.

Withdrawal, which in regular abusers may occur as early as a few hours after the last administration, produces drug craving, restlessness, muscle and bone pain, insomnia, diarrhea and vomiting, cold flashes with goose bumps (“cold turkey”), kicking movements (“kicking the habit”), and other symptoms. Major withdrawal symptoms peak between 48 and 72 hours after the last dose and subside after about a week. Sudden withdrawal by heavily dependent users who are in poor health is occasionally fatal, although heroin withdrawal is considered less dangerous than alcohol or barbiturate withdrawal.

Heroin addiction is widely prevalent in the United States and while heroin addiction can be fatal it can be treated. Heroin is a fast acting opiate derived from the substance morphine found in certain types of poppy plants. Heroin can be found in fairly pure forms however most heroin is mixed with other substances including sugar, powered milk and starch or more dangerous substances including various poisons.

Heroin is a highly addictive drug therefore leading to high numbers of heroin addiction among its users. Because heroin is most often injected intravenously, users run the risk of contracting HIV and other diseases transmitted through dirty needles and blood.

Heroin is so addictive mainly because it reaches the brain and creates a euphoric reaction so rapidly. In general, opiates block pain messages, create a false sense of calmness by depressing body functions and increase feelings of pleasure in the body and the brain. Heroin addiction itself may well be the most destructive long-term effect of heroin use next to death. Once the body and mind are addicted to heroin the brain's chemistry is most likely changed permanently. Heroin addiction is characterized by an increase in tolerance, meaning a person must use more of the drug to get the same effect, and a physical dependence on heroin.

Heroin addiction makes it almost impossible for a person to do anything else in life expect look for drugs and get "high". Because heroin has such powerful effects on a person's body, many people addicted to heroin will not try to stop because the symptoms of withdrawal are too painful for them to handle. Some will go through the symptoms of withdrawal to bring their tolerance down and enjoy the "high" again. Withdrawal symptoms can include diarrhea, nausea, insomnia, hot and cold flashes, physical pain, and involuntary body movement. These symptoms may occur within a few hours of the last drug use, but the signs may last up to a week and in some even months.

Heroin addiction is deadly and once a user is addicted many of the following long-term effects are possible:

· Bacterial infections
· Abscesses
· Collapsed veins
· Infectious diseases (HIV/AIDS and hepatitis)
· Infections of the heart
· Joint and muscular problems

Heroin addiction implies that a person is no longer functioning as a normal human being because he/she is dependent upon heroin to live. Heroin addiction breaks apart families and relationships, ruins lives and in the end results in death, either by the drug itself or by its deadly consequences: HIV/AIDS, hepatitis, heart failure, clogged arteries, etc.

Heroin addiction can be treatable with the proper environment, care and attention to the suffering addict. Heroin addiction does not take into account how many lives it has ruined or how much debt it has caused.