The Heroin Culture

BY: STEPHANIE MERRILL

Thesis statement
To inform my audience about Heroin by providing
insight into the culture. My experience having a sister
who suffering with heroin addiction. A recent article by
The Baltimore Sun Heroins lasting grip in Baltimore
suburbs.

The Heroin Culture

Heroin is highly addictive drug that is processed from morphine,
which is naturally occurring substance extracted from the seed
pod of the Asian opium poppy plant.
Heroin can be injected, snorted/ or smoked (making it user
friendly). It is highly addictive and enters the brain very quickly.
Contrary to popular opinion, all three methods can lead to
addiction and other severe health problems.
There is no cookie cutter heroin user. In fact, many of heroins
newest addicts are in their teens or early 20s; many also come
from middle-or upper-middle-class suburban families.

The Heroin Culture

Tolerance to heroin develops with regular use, so after a short time
more heroin is needed to produce the same level of intensity. This
results in addiction.
Health risks to using heroin include:
- Fatal overdose
- High risk of infection such as HIV/AIDS
- Collapsed veins
- Infection of the heart lining and valves
- Liver Disease

The Heroin Culture

When an addict stops using, he experiences physical withdrawal
which can begin within just a few hours since the last use. Symptoms
include; Restlessness, Insomnia, diarrhea, Vomiting, Cold flashes with
goose bumps, and Muscle and bone pain.
Major withdrawal symptoms peak between 48 and 72 hours after the
last dose and can last up to a week. Some people experience
withdrawal symptoms for as long as a few months after stopping the
drug. Sudden withdrawal by heavily dependent users can be fatal.
Heroin was first manufactured in 1898 by the Bayer pharmaceutical
company of Germany and marketed as a treatment for tuberculosis
as well as a remedy for morphine addiction.

The Heroin Culture

Heroin craving can persist years after drug use stops, and can
be triggered by exposure to stress or people, places, and things
associated with drug use.
In heroins purest form it is a fine, white powder. More often than
not, it is found to be rose gray, brown or black. Toxic ingredients
are usually mixed with heroin so the true purity of the drug and
its strength is usually hard to really know.
Approximately 9.2 million people use heroin.

The Baltimore Sun: Heroins lasting grip in Baltimore

Suburbs.
By: Dan Rodricks
One day in February 2000, Dan Rodricks sat in a police car on the streets in
West Baltimore to observe a reverse sting: Instead of attempting to buy
heroin from dealers, undercover officers were offering to sell it to users.
They cleared out the regular salesmen, took over their corners and waited
for the customers to arrive. The police arrested 53 people that day. Almost
all of the heroin addicts had driven in from the suburbs from Cockeysville,
Gaithersburg, Essex, Woodlawn, Marriottsville, Crownsville, Jessup, Ellicott
City, Linthicum and Columbia. It wasn't such a surprised. Heroin and
heroin overdoses had started showing up in troubling numbers in the
suburbs of Baltimore in the 1990s. The heroin dealer's customer base had
shifted. Not much has changed. In fact, based on police and news reports
following the death of the actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, the nation's heroin
problem appears to be widespread geographically and socioeconomically.

9 Tips for Dealing with and Supporting the Heroin

Addict in Your Household without Enabling
1. Learn all you can
2. Pay attention to their cycle
3. Get support for yourself
4. Understand that addiction is a disease
5. Accept others lack of Empathy for addiction in general
6. Understand that addiction is a family disease
7. Do not blame yourself
8. Do not enable the addict
9. Never lose hope

Thesis statement
To inform my audience about Heroin by providing insight into the culture. My
experience having a sister who is suffering with heroin addiction. A recent
article by The Baltimore Sun Heroins lasting grip in Baltimore suburbs.

Brittney Now

Citation page
Rodricks, Dan. "Heroins lasting grip on Baltimore Suburbs ." Baltimore Sun.
(2014): n. page. Print. <http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2014-02-11/news/bsmd-rodricks-0211-20140211_1_heroin-addiction-heroin-dealer-heroinproblem>.
Foundation For A Drug-Free World, Above the Influence, National Institute on
Drug Abuse, . "11 facts about Heroin ." do something. (2013): n. page. Print.
<http://www.dosomething.org/tipsandtools/11-facts-about-heroin
Sager, Summer. "Dear Heroin." Family and Friend Poems. (2008): n. page.
Print. <http://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/dear-heroin-addicted-toheroin>.