Heroin Use Abuse

Heroin is a highly addictive drug and is the most widely abused and 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. (4)

Pure heroin, which is a white powder with a bitter taste, is rarely sold on the streets. Most illicit heroin is a powder varying in color from white to dark brown. The differences in color are due to impurities left from the manufacturing process or the presence of additives. Another form of heroin, "black tar" heroin, is primarily available in the western and southwestern U.S. This heroin, which is produced in Mexico, may be sticky like roofing tar or hard like coal, with its color varying from dark brown to black. 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 and the fear of infection by sharing needles have made snorting and smoking the drug more common. (4)

The U.S. heroin market is supplied entirely from foreign sources of opium. Heroin available in the U.S. is produced in four geographical areas: South America (Colombia), Southeast Asia (primarily Burma), Mexico, and Southwest Asia (principally Afghanistan).

An estimated 90 percent of the world's opium gum production occurs in Afghanistan. However, most of the heroin used in the United States comes from poppies grown in Colombia and Mexico, although their opium gum production accounts for less than four percent of the world's total production. Mexico's geographical location allows Mexican growers and refiners to supply an estimated 30 to 40 percent of the U.S. heroin market, primarily west of the Mississippi River. Colombia supplies heroin to most of the remainder of the states east of the Mississippi. (1)

There are many different types of heroin effects that a drug user can