What Type of Drug is Heroin?

If you’re concerned that one of your loved ones is using heroin, you may ask what type of drug is heroin, what effects it has, and how it can be treated. It’s important to know what type of drug this is to understand how serious addiction it can be. Fortunately, the experienced and compassionate team of addiction treatment professionals, counselors, and therapists at Beaches Recovery can help.

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. But help is available. Through heroin addiction treatment, those struggling with the disease of addiction can heal and recover.

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 from 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 painkillers like prescription opioids are so potent, they can become highly addictive. This can happen even when medications are used as a doctor instructs. Once addicted to opioids, individuals find them expensive and difficult to acquire. Thus, they turn to heroin which meets their dependency, is cheaper, and, although illegal, more easily available. 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 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 and 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 it 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 using it.

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 it on the street. The risk of overdose rate has gone up exponentially in recent years due to this new mixture of fentanyl and heroin.

The overdose statistics of heroin have increased the use of Narcan, a heroin overdose antidote. EMTs 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 struggling with the disease, allow Beaches Recovery to help. We’re partnered with a local detox facility, Tides Edge Detox, that uses the latest addiction medicine to assist with heroin detox. You’ll be able to smoothly transition to our inpatient or outpatient rehab program to begin your rehabilitation. Our facility also accepts insurance and can help you verify your coverage. Call for insurance verification and start your new life free from heroin addiction by reaching out to us at 866.605.0532, or contact us online today.