Depression Treatment

Heroin is described as a semi-synthetic drug that is synthesized from morphine, which is a derivative of the opium poppy. It is used as a pain-killer or recreational drugs as are the other opiates and is normally injected intravenously.

Continued use of heroin usually results in addiction and an increasing tolerance which will require more frequent use or higher amounts being ingested.History has recorded accounts of the opium poppy being grown and harvested as early as 3,400 BC in the lower regions of Mesopotamia. But it was not until the early 1900’s that chemical analysis revealed that the two key ingredients in opium were codeine and morphine. C.R. Alder Wright, who was working at St. Mary’s Hospital in London was said to have been the first person to process heroin in 1874.

It was not until 1897 that heroin achieved popularity when it was re-synthesized by another chemist, Felix Hoffmann who was employed by the Bayer company in Elberfield, Germany. Ironically, during the period between 1898 and 1910, the Bayer Company marketed heroin as a cure for people who were suffering with a morphine addiction and a cough syrup for children. But this would prove to be a blunder for Bayer since heroin gets metabolized by the liver into morphine anyway, thus defeating one of the advertised uses of the drug, and resulting in more drug addictions.

When the Germans were defeated in World War I, Bayer lost a majority of their trademark rights to heroin. When the Harrison Narcotics Act of 1914 was passed in the United States it enforced strict controls on the sales and distribution of the drug. The law however did allow for heroin to be prescribed and sold for medicinal purposes. It is interesting to note that recreational users of the drug could still obtain it, but that came to an end in 1924 when Congress passed additional legislation which ultimately banned the importation, manufacturing, and sale of heroin in the US. Heroin is now classified as a Schedule I substance, basically translating as highly illegal in the United States. There is still wide substance abuse in the US in regards to heroin.