Heroin addiction is one of the most alarming of all the addictions and the reasons why people start off on this road, which is a road to hell, are many. Addiction can start with something as simple as using it as a painkiller like morphine – an opiate. Many cough medicines contain methadone, which is a synthetic opiate. These can be very addictive and one can often see addicts buying up cough medicine as a solution to their inability to obtain heroin.
As one of it’s main functions is as a painkiller, the reason people want to continue with this drug is that it numbs the senses, including the heroin addict’s emotions. A further problem is that, once started on this road, it is very difficult to step off it and then the problem is that the amount needed to achieve the same sensation, has to increase as tolerance to it increases. In the same way that drinking one beer when you’re young makes you buzz but, in order to get the same buzz when you’re much older, you need six or even 12 beers.
Tolerance of these drugs occurs rather rapidly and the addiction is physical as well as psychological. This becomes very dangerous for the heroin...