Heroin addiction treatment

Heroin Treatment in Virginia

Heroin, originating primarily from South America, is a growing threat to Virginia. Southeast Asian, Southwest Asian, and Mexican tar and brown powdered heroin are all available as well. Most new heroin users in Virginia are youth or young adults who snort the drug rather use it intravenously. The number of admissions to government funded treatment centers for heroin abuse ranked third behind cocaine and marijuana from 1995 to the end of 1999. Heroin was present in more drug-related deaths in Virginia in 2000 than any other drug before it.

Heroin is readily available in the Central Virginia and Tidewater areas and is becoming a threat to Winchester. The number of heroin-related federal prison terms in Virginia changed between FY1996 and FY2000 but was lower than the terms given for every other major substance in FY2000.
Heroin addicts sometimes perpetrate crimes to support their drug habits, and heroin dealers frequently commit violent crimes including assaults and murders to protect their area and clientele rights.

A type of heroin deaths is with quinine. This substance is normally used to cut white powder heroin. One of the usual causes of heroin deaths is pulmonary edema. This is the lungs filling with fluid, the result is that the user will drown. Heroin does not have this side effect, but this is precisely the side effect of a quinine overdose. These types of heroin deaths are ironic because what is commonly called "heroin overdose" is killing the user precisely because what he is ingesting has little heroin in it, and rather has a high concentration of quinine.

Short Term Effect:
The short-term effects of heroin occur soon after a single dose and disappear in a few hours. After an injection of heroin, the individual reports feeling a sudden euphoria ("rush") accompanied by a warm flushing of the skin, a dry mouth, and heavy extremities. Following this first euphoria, the individual goes "on the nod," an alternately wakeful and drowsy state. Mental functioning becomes clouded because of the depression of the central nervous system. Other effects are slurred speech, slow gait, constricted pupils, droopy eyelids, impaired night vision, vomiting, and constipation.