When you read about longtime users of heroin who remain functional and even productive, it seems strange that heroin deaths are on the rise. In fact, deaths are increasing even faster than use or addiction.
Partly it seems to be related to opioid prescription pill abuse. There’s been such a crackdown on doctors prescribing pain killers such as oxycodone and hydrocodone – even those people who need them legitimately have a hard time getting them – that the black market prices have skyrocketed. At the same, time, heroin has gotten cheaper. So junkies on a budget who have no interest in even the best inpatient drug rehab centers have switched to injecting heroin.
The problem is that, in addition to being illegal for all uses, heroin has other drawbacks. It doesn’t come in the form of regulated pills. The purity and strength of heroin depends on where you buy it and what type of heroin it is (black tar heroin can be stronger than most powder heroin). And most heroin is cut with other substances which can dilute or occasionally augment its strength. For addicts used to popping a pill, getting the right dose of heroin can be tricky.
Another problem is that heroin has a depressing effect on the respiratory system, making it harder to breathe. And while the body quickly builds a tolerance to the euphoria from taking heroin, it builds tolerance to the respiratory effect more slowly. The result is the amount of heroin that it takes you to get high may become too much for your respiratory system, and your body essentially forgets to breathe.
The standard treatment for heroin addiction is a heroin detox center where the addict can safely be weaned off of the drugs with therapy and possibly temporary replacement drugs such as methadone.
But others suggest that these claims of heroin overdose are overblown and that heroin is actually pretty safe on its own, no heroin addiction help needed.. In fact, they claim that it is heroin in combination with alcohol and/or other drugs that cause most heroin deaths. By overemphasizing the risk of heroin overdose, they say, authorities are causing more deaths because users will take smaller doses of heroin in combination with other substances to increase their high instead. The Stanton Peele Addiction website cites several cases in Plano, Texas, where what were reported as heroin overdoses actually involved heroin abusers choking to death on their own vomit, which Peele states is a common side effect of mixing heroin and alcohol.
It is going too far to say that it is nearly impossible to overdose on heroin, but there is a tendency by anti-drug forces in their zeal to overstate their case. When that happens, young people whose experience of drug use is different will dismiss the whole anti-drug argument. Honest education is the best long-term policy to discourage heroin use and encourage heroin abuse treatment.