Commonly Abused Drugs

Heroin

An opioid drug made from morphine, a natural substance extracted from the seed pod of the Asian opium poppy plant. 

Street Names Commercial Names Common Forms Common Ways Taken DEA Schedule
Brown sugar, China White, Dope, H, Horse, Junk, Skag, Skunk, Smack, White Horse
With OTC cold medicine and antihistamine: Cheese		 No commercial uses White or brownish powder, or black sticky substance known as “black tar heroin” Injected, smoked, snorted I

Possible Health Effects
Short-term Euphoria; warm flushing of skin; dry mouth; heavy feeling in the hands and feet; clouded thinking; alternate wakeful and drowsy states; itching; nausea; vomiting; slowed breathing and heart rate.
Long-term Collapsed veins; abscesses (swollen tissue with pus); infection of the lining and valves in the heart; constipation and stomach cramps; liver or kidney disease; pneumonia.
Other Health-related Issues Pregnancy: miscarriage, low birth weight, neonatal abstinence syndrome.

Risk of HIV, hepatitis, and other infectious diseases from shared needles.
In Combination with Alcohol Dangerous slowdown of heart rate and breathing, coma, death.
Withdrawal Symptoms Restlessness, muscle and bone pain, insomnia, diarrhea, vomiting, cold flashes with goose bumps ("cold turkey"), leg movements.
Treatment options
Medications
  • Methadone
  • Buprenorphine
  • Naltrexone (short and long-acting forms)
Behavioral Therapies
  • Contingency management, or motivational incentives
  • 12-Step facilitation therapy