Heroin is an opioid and it is a chemically modified version of morphine (heroin’s chemical name is diacetylmorphine), first marketed by a pharmaceutical company in the late 1890s as a cough suppressant. It was also thought that heroin provided the same medicinal benefits for pain relief as morphine without the side effects associated with morphine. However, when the overwhelming addictive nature of heroin was recognized by physicians and the government, the medicinal use of heroin was outlawed in the United States in 1932.
Heroin is currently classified as a Schedule I controlled substance in the United States due to it having no medicinal value and its misuse being associated with significant danger, including death.
Heroin was recognized for its addictive characteristics since the early 1900s when regulations and laws were enacted in many countries to classify the substance as an illegal drug. However, recently, and coinciding with the upsurge of abuse and addiction to prescription opioid painkillers, the misuse of heroin and the amount of people suffering from heroin addiction has increased dramatically.
The misuse of heroin is dangerous. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that heroin-related overdose deaths increased more than 5 times between the years of 2010 and 2017. Currently, heroin addiction is an epidemic that has affected people of all demographics, including groups that were historically identified as low-risk, including women and people with higher incomes.
Understanding the addictive characteristics of heroin and being aware of the signs and symptoms of heroin addiction are vital to providing intervention and appropriate treatment to begin the path to recovery and healthy living.