What Type of Drug is Heroin?

If you’re concerned that one of your loved ones is using heroin, you may be asking what type of drug is heroin. It’s important to know what type of drug this is so you understand how serious an addiction it can be. Heroin is causing thousands of overdoses each year in the United States, and sometimes there are hundreds in a single day. Just about every state in the country has seen the devastation that this drug causes.

Understanding What Type of Drug is Heroin

Those who ask the question, what type of drug is heroin, often don’t realize that it’s derived of the same compound as pain medications. Heroin is an opiate, which is the same substance that’s used to create many pain medications. Pain medications are often the gateway drug towards heroin because they can be highly addictive, expensive and hard to acquire. Some of the most common prescription pain killers that people use include:

• Codeine
• Fentanyl
• Hydrocodone
• Hydromorphone
• Oxycodone
• Morphine

Heroin is just a more pure, potent form of an opiate medication. Many years ago, when doctors saw patients becoming addicted to morphine, they used heroin. Medical professionals thought that they could use heroin to wean people off morphine. They quickly found that heroin was much more potent as well as more addictive than morphine and required opiate addiction treatment to quit.

What Type of Drug is Heroin Mixed With?

One of the primary reasons for all the overdoses in recent years is that people often cut heroin with other, sometimes dangerous, drugs. Heroin is already much more potent and dangerous than other opiates, but people build up a tolerance. Many people struggling with an addiction to heroin are using because it’s the only way to feel well. Finding a stronger, more potent form of the drug can increase the high they feel when they use.

Fentanyl is a synthetic medication that’s only given for very severe pain, and it’s 100 times more potent than morphine. Fentanyl is about 50 times more powerful than heroin, and drug dealers mix it with heroin and then distribute on the street. The risk of overdose rate in recent years has gone up exponentially due to this new mixture of fentanyl and heroin.

The overdose statistics of heroin have increased the use of Narcan, a heroin overdose antidote. EMT’s and even high schools have it available for overdose situations. More and more cities are starting to use Narcan as an overdose reversal medication because of the overdose rates.

Finding a Heroin Rehab for Men

Whether you’ve become addicted to heroin or have a loved one who is struggling with the disease, allow Beaches Recovery to help. We’re partnered with a local detox facility that uses the latest in addiction medicine to help with detox. You’ll be able to smoothly transition to our inpatient or outpatient rehab program to begin your rehabilitation. Our facility also accepts insurance. Call for insurance verification and start your new life free from a heroin addiction. The number is 866.605.0532.