HEROIN: Heroin is most often mixed with water and injected. Injecting it minimizes the lag time between when the drug is taken and effects are felt -- with injection, the effects are almost immediate. It can also be smoked, snorted or eaten, but smoking or eating destroys some of the drug and mutes its effects. When someone takes heroin there is an immediate rush. Then the body feels an extreme form of relaxation and a decreased sense of pain. Whats happening inside the body is the heroin is turning into morphine. Morphine has a chemical structure similar to endorphins -- the chemicals your brain makes when you feel stressed out or are in pain. Endorphins inhibit your neurons from firing, so they halt pain and create a good feeling. Morphine, acting like your endorphins, binds to molecules in your brain called opioid receptors. When those receptors are blocked, that creates a high. Why you die Most people die from heroin overdoses when their bodies forget to breathe. Heroin makes someone calm and a little bit sleepy, but if you take too much then you can fall asleep, and when you are asleep your respiratory drive shuts down, said Dr. Karen Drexler, director of the addiction psychiatry residency training program and an associate professor in Emory Universitys psychiatry and behavioral sciences department. Usually when you are sleeping, your body naturally remembers to breathe. In the case of a heroin overdose, you fall asleep and essentially your body forgets.
Posted on: Mon, 05 Jan 2015 15:55:22 +0000
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