Q: Is it true that heroin is stronger than it used to be? A: Purity varies, fluctuating on a local basis depending on availability (distributors reduce purity when they lesser amount) but usually, yes, heroin is purer now than it has been in the past. A reason this is because former cocaine cartels are now branching out into other drugs such as heroin, flooding the market. Higher purity heroin also makes snorting and inhaling an alternative to injecting without too much compromising of the intensity of the high.