dream (United Kingdom).People who use heroin on a regular basis may experience a variety of side effects and symptoms. The effects on a heroin user can be: euphoria, drowsiness, respiratory depression, constricted pupils, and nausea. Females may have interrupted periods and still have the ability to get pregnant (United States). The user may experience tolerance, which is the need for larger doses to get the same effect. An unpleasant, although not physically dangerous effect the user may experience, is withdrawal, which is a series of side effects caused from the addiction to heroin. Withdrawing consists of a running nose, hot and cold sweats, nausea, diarrhea, constipation, chills, cramps, and muscle spasms. The user will feel a psychological craving for the drug to make the user feel better again and again (“Drugs Card”). There are many risks when overdosing on heroin. Mixing depressant drugs with heroin increases the risk. Injecting heroin can easily lead to an overdose (United Kingdom). When injecting heroin, the dose reaches the brain instantly increasing possible overdose. If there are impurities in the heroin, these impurities go directly into the blood stream, leading to septicemia and other infections. Injecting heroin repeatedly will damage veins, possibly causing thrombosis and abscesses. Users who overdose may be affected by clammy skin and convulsions. They might experience slow and shallow breathing, lose consciousness and stop breathing. The user can be sent into a coma and even die. (United States).Many different surveys have shown that the number of heroin users is increasing and will not stop. Street heroin over 10 years ago used to range between 1% and 10% purity. Now, from South America, street heroin is rated up to 98% purity. The national average of purified heroin is 41% (United States). The Drug Abuse Warning Network discovered that an increasing rate of the number of heroin relat...
