heroin teachback

HeroinKylie Bowen

What is it?• Heroin is an opioid drug that is synthesized from morphine.• Heroin usually appears as a white or brown powder or as a

black sticky substance known as “black tar”.

H. (2016). Heroin. Retrieved September 27, 2016, from https://www.drugabuse.gov/drugs-abuse/heroin

How is Heroin Used?• It can be injected, inhaled by snorting or sniffing, or smoked.• All 3 routes deliver the drug to the brain rapidly, which

contributes to it’s health risks and high risk of addiction.


How does Heroin Affect the Brain?

• When it enters the brain, heroin is converted back in to morphine which binds to molecules on cells known as opioid receptors.

• The receptors are located in many areas of the brain and body and are involved in perception of pain and reward.

• These opioid receptors control automatic processes critical for life such as blood pressure, arousal, and respiration.


How Does Heroin Affect the Brian cont.

• Heroin overdoses frequently involve suppression of breathing resulting in coma or brain damage.

• After an intravenous injection, users report feeling a “rush” accompanied by dry mouth, warm flushing of skin, heaviness of the extremities, and clouded mental functioning.

• Following this, the user goes “on the nod”, an alternately wakeful and drowsy state.


Health effects of Heroin Use• Fatal overdoes• Spontaneous abortion• Hepatitis and HIV• Collapsed veins• Heart infection• Liver or kidney disease • Physical dependence resulting in withdrawal


Statistics


Statistics cont.


Prescription Opioid Abuse: 1st step?

• Prescription opioid pain medications (ex: oxy, Vicodin) can have similar effects of heroin when taken in doses or in ways other than prescribed, and they are currently amonf the most commonly abused drugs in the US.

• Abuse of these drugs may open the door to heroin, research suggests.

• In a survey, ½ of heroin users reported abusing prescription opioids before heroin.


Treatment• Behavioral therapy• Medications (buprenorphine, methadone, Naloxone)• Detox Treatment Centers


Narcan (Naloxone) Debate• Naloxone is a medication designed to rapidly reverse opioid

overdose and quickly restore normal respiration to someone whose breathing has stopped as result of overdose.

• It can be injected, or used as a prepackaged nasal spray (training required).

• Commonly used by paramedics, doctors, an specially trained first responders. As of recent however, more and more of the general population have become trained in Narcan.


Quote“When you push someone's head under water for 5 minutes, they will drown. It doesn't matter if the person is a sinner or a saint. It's just a natural process. If their head is under water, the lack of oxygen will make them drown. That rule applies to everyone, good or bad, equally. It doesn't matter if the drowning person has strong moral fiber.

And it doesn't matter if you're a good or a bad person, once you become addicted to drugs. What happens next is inevitable. It's a natural process that happens in everyone's brain, once the drugs take over. So don't ever fool yourself into thinking that only weak or bad people get addicted.” ― Oliver Markus, Sex and Crime: Oliver's Strange Journey

Discussion• What are your current thoughts on the prevalence of Heroin

and the opioid crisis in society?

• What do you think can be done to prevent further spreading of this heroin and opioid epidemic?

Bibliography

Tag, B. (n.d.). Quotes About Heroin (74 quotes). Retrieved September 27, 2016, from http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/heroin?page=1


heroin teachback

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