Heroin addiction treatment

Heroin Treatment in Tennessee

Heroin is actually the least predominant illicit drug threat to  the state of Tennessee. The availability, abuse, and violence connected with heroin are low and concentrated primarily in Memphis and, to a lesser degree, in Chattanooga and Knoxville. Mexican brown powdered heroin is around in small quantities mostly in Memphis, Chattanooga, and Knoxville. Mexican black tar heroin is even more scarce in the area. South American heroin is also rarely available. Most of the heroin seized in the state of Tennessee is in transit to other markets.

Heroin addictions rates are low in Tennessee State. According to TEDS information, the number of treatment admissions to government funded facilities reporting heroin as the primary drug of choice decreased from 35 in 1995 to 0 in 1998 and in 1999.  In 1999 there were zero heroin-related rehab admissions per 100,000 population in Tennessee compared with 105 per 100,000 across the nation.

Most heroin in the United States is smuggled into America from Mexico, Canada, the Orient (China), Colombia, the Dominican Republic, and the notorious Golden Triangle area of Southeast Asia (Burma, Thailand, Laos).

Heroin is a chemical substance that originates from the opium poppy plant which grows in fields. The pod contains white syrup that can be collected. When the syrup dries, this is what is known as opium. From this opium other substances (Morphine, Heroin, and Codeine) are extracted. Often morphine is extracted from the opium gum in labs close to the fields, and then converted into heroin in laboratories within or nearby the drug producing country.

Heroin was originally produced in 1874; it was thought to be both non-addictive and useful as a cure for respiratory illness and morphine addiction. It was also thought that heroin would be able of relieving morphine withdrawal symptoms. Later it was discovered to have the same pharmacological effects as morphine and to be as addictive as morphine.