Heroin is a notorious psychoactive drug known for bringing users to euphoric highs and miserable lows. It can be produced cheaply and quickly, which has led to heroin’s proliferation in cities, rural areas, and of people of all ages and socioeconomic standings resulting in the ongoing opioid epidemic. Having no medical use, heroin is an illicit opioid that has become a widespread issue of epidemic proportions. Learn more about how heroin affects the sense and how to recognize the harmful substance.
What Does Heroin Look Like?
Heroin can appear in several forms: a fine powder, a tacky paste, and as a liquid. These variations in heroin’s physical state are caused by differences in production methods.
Powdered heroin, the most commonly used form, can be found in various shades of whites, pinks, and browns. This color variation is indicative of the level of refinement: the lighter the color, the purer and more potent the drug. Its physical appearance can further be altered depending on the types of additives or fillers used to dilute it.
Black tar heroin is the crudest form of heroin, it has the most chemical additives as well as the lowest potency. It resembles a small lump of coal that, despite the name, can be black or brown in color. Black tar is one of the most water-soluble forms of heroin and is most often used in liquid form. Once it’s melted down it is either injected with a needle or taken via inhalation in a method called foil smoking.
What Does Heroin Smell Like?
In its purest form, heroin is rather odorless. By the time it hits the streets, however, heroin has often been diluted or otherwise manipulated which can cause heroin to acquire an odor. In most cases, heroin is reported to have a pungent, sharp acidic smell like that of vinegar. Lower grades of heroin that are less pure or have undergone greater chemical processing tend to smell the most strongly.
Black tar heroin, the least refined form of heroin that also has the most additives, is reported to have the strongest vinegar-like odor. It has also been described as having an acrid, burnt smell. Powdered heroin that has been cut with additives has been reported to smell like cat urine, cat litter, and a general odor of chemicals in addition to vinegar.
What Does Heroin Taste Like?
Heroin is described as having a general bitter taste. In most cases, any taste heroin might have is caused by the chemicals that were either the production process or as post-production additives to cut the substance. Powdered heroin has the greatest variance in taste due to the wide variety of substances that are used to cut it. Sometimes the substances are benign like sugar, baking soda, flour, or powdered milk. In some cases, heroin is cut with toxic chemicals like rat poison or powdered laundry detergent. For this reason, heroin can vary in taste to be sweet, bitter, or acidic.
What Does Heroin Feel Like?
The feeling of a heroin high is often described as a sudden wave of pleasure or euphoria that washes over the body. The sensation is intense but fleeting and rarely lasts longer than a few minutes. Other side effects include feelings of artificial warmth as well as pain relief which make heroin particularly sought after by those in rough and unsafe living situations. After the initial onset of a heroin high, users are left in a semi-conscious state that can last for hours.
But heroin use is not with its risks. Being an opioid, heroin can have a powerful depressant effect on the central nervous system making it difficult to breathe, inducing nausea and vomiting, and causing dizziness.
A Little Heroin is a Big Risk
Heroin can have drastic and long-lasting effects. Using it just once could result in addiction, and lead to a dangerous spiral of impaired brain function that affects your ability to breathe, sleep, digest food properly, and control your emotions. Heroin withdrawal symptoms aren’t any prettier. Once physical dependence has been established, heroin users face the risk of experiencing seizures, difficulty breathing, and in the most severe instances, a coma.