Heroin is a powerful narcotic that affects the brain and is highly addictive. It is commonly used as a recreational drug for the intense euphoria it induces. Once the person becomes addictive to heroin, due to person's tolerance, it becomes harder and harder to achieve the same euphoria. This is where the vicious cycle starts, the addict "lives to use and uses to live." Obtaining their drug is the most important thing in addict's mind and life. Their minds is affected that they do things that are unconventional, immoral and against the law. They tend to lose their identity and judgment. For some cases, it would be too late for them to realize that that they were already hooked with heroin and their lives are ruined.
History of Heroin.
The heroin comes from morphine which is a natural substance extracted from seedpod of opium poppy. The opium poppy was discovered and cultivated in Mesopotamia about 3400BC. It was until the 19th century that the chemical analysis of opium was revealed. Most of its content could be ascribed to two ingredients, codeine and morphine. An English chemist named C.R. Alder Wright was the first person who processed the heroin in 1874. He made an experiment mixing morphine with different acids. However, his invention was not a success. It was then Felix Hoffman, another chemist who made the heroin popular when he re-synthesized it 23 years later. Hoffman works with the Bayer, a pharmaceutical company in Germany. Hoffman was tasked to produce codeine, which is less potent and addictive, however, the experiment produced almost two times more potent that morphine. Bayer named the substance "heroin", derived from the word heroisch, which is the German word for heroic because people using it felt "heroic". Bayer introduced heroin to the market to cure morphine addiction, cough medicine for children and non-addictive morphine substitute, but it was later found out that heroin will convert to morphine once metabolized in the liver.
