1. By Meg Meyerheinrich, Tjala Hobbs and Bianca Carrera
Heroin
By Meg Meyerheinrich, Tjala Hobbs and Bianca Carrera

2. HEROIN – TABLE OF CONTENTS
Click A Topic!
What does it look like?
Other names for heroin
How is it taken?
Why do people use it?
Short term effects
Long term effects
Legal consequences in Australia
Legal consequences in Aus. (2)
What happens if you mix it with other drugs?
-Alcohol And Heroin
-Cocaine and Heroin
-Additional Drugs and Heroin
Social effects
Minimising harm
Statistics
Treatment
Where to get help
Bibliography

3. HEROIN – WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE?
In its purest form, heroin is a fine white powder. But more often, it is found to be rose grey, brown or black in colour.

4. HEROIN – OTHER NAMES
Smack, gear, hammer, the dragon, H, dope, junk, harry, horse, white dynamite, homebake, Chinese H, poison, Dr Harry, chiva, chiba, brown stone, skag, brown sugar, mud, white, China white, white nurse, white lady, white horse, white girl, white boy, white stuff, boy, he, black, black tar, black pearl, black stuff, black eagle, brown, brown crystal, brown tape, brown rhine, Mexican brown, Mexican mud, Mexican horse, snow, snowball, scat, sack, skunk, number 3, number 4, number 8.

5. HEROIN – HOW IS IT TAKEN? Injected into a vein or muscle.
Can be smoked in a pipe.
Mixed with a marijuana joint or regular cigarette.
Its smoke can be inhaled through a straw (“Chasing the dragon”)
As a powder, it can be snorted.

6. HEROIN – WHY DO PEOPLE USE IT?
To ‘try’ it, thinking that they wont get addicted.
Peer pressure
Curiousness
To escape stress

7. HEROIN – SHORT TERM EFFECTS
‘Rush’ of sensation
Warm flushes
Dry mouth
Heavy feeling
Vomiting
Severe itching
Nausea

8. HEROIN – LONG TERM EFFECTS
Repeated use changes the physical structure and physiology of the brain, creating long term imbalances in neuronal and hormonal systems.
Start to get used to it
Feel sick and vomiting
Runny nose, almost like living constantly with the flu.

9. HEROIN – LEGAL CONSEQUENCES IN AUSTRALIA
Heroin is an illegal drug in Australia.
You can be prosecuted for offences such as:
Use
Possession
Cultivation
Trafficking

10. HEROIN – LEGAL CONSEQUENCES IN AUSTRALIA
It is illegal to drive under the influence of drugs.
Penalties include:
Disqualification from driving
Heavy fines
Imprisonment
Penalties for breaking laws in relation to heroin may include fines, imprisonment and disqualification from driving.

11. HEROIN – WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU MIX IT?
Alcohol and Heroin Together
Can lead to coma and death, because they are both central nervous system depressants.
Can affect your breathing and heart rate, slowing both to hazardous levels.

12. HEROIN – WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU MIX IT?
Heroin and Cocaine Together
Leads to bronchial hyper-reactivity, a condition characterised by muscle contractions in the airways.
Causes wheezing.
Can throw off your heart rate which, at a serious level, can result in death.

13. HEROIN – WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU MIX IT?
Combining Heroin with Additional Drugs
Heroin with methamphetamine or Ecstasy increases the risk of overdose.
These drugs give opposite effects to heroin, so they can cover up its effects. This leads the user to take more heroin to feel its effects that are covered up by the other drugs.
GHB with heroin can overwhelm the nervous system to the point that it can cause death.
The opioid painkiller Fentanyl can amplify heroin’s effects in your system. It can cause a number of side effects like feeling nauseous, confused or tired. It can also cause you to have breathing problems or go into a coma.

14. HEROIN – SOCIAL EFFECTS
User
Lack of confidence
Not be able to function correctly
Financial problems due to the need to buy more and more of the drug
Unemployment
Friends
User may treat friends badly
User may resort to borrowing and stealing money from friends, due to financial costs.
Loss of trust from friends
Family
Financial problems for families
Families torn apart

15. HEROIN – MINIMISING HARM
• Do not take more than you know you can handle
• Don’t take it with strangers
• Don’t drive or handle dangerous machinery while on the drugs
• Do not take whilst pregnant
• Do not mix with other drugs
• Do not take in a dangerous environment
But most of all, don’t take heroin in the first place!!

16. HEROIN – STATISITICS
1.2% of Australians aged 14 years and older have used heroin one or more times in their life.
0.1% of Australians aged 14 years and older have used heroin in the previous 12 months.
Young People
Young Australians (aged 14–24) first try heroin at 16.9 years on average. 1.6% of year olds have tried heroin.
Victoria
5.21 ambulance attendances related to heroin in metropolitan Melbourne.
0.28 in regional Victoria per day in 2012/13 (these numbers include non-fatal overdose).
13% decrease in the number of ambulance attendances for heroin overdose in metropolitan Melbourne.
15% decrease in regional Victoria in 2012/13 compared to the previous year.
In Australia in 2005, 131 people died of heroin overdose.

17. HEROIN – TREATMENT Pharmacological Treatment (Medications)
Medications can be helpful to ease craving and other physical side effects. While not a treatment for addiction itself, detoxification is a useful first step when it is followed by some form of evidence-based treatment.
Methadone – Slow acting opioid medicine, it dampens the ‘high’ and prevents withdrawal symptoms.
Buprenorphine – Relieves drug cravings without producing the “high” or dangerous side effects of other drugs.
Naltrexone – Blocks the action of heroin and it not addictive or sedating.

18. HEROIN – WHERE TO GET HELP

19. BIBLIOGRAPHY • • • • • • •

20. By Meg Meyerheinrich, Tjala Hobbs and Bianca Carrera
Thanks for watching
By Meg Meyerheinrich, Tjala Hobbs and Bianca Carrera